/ 



/ 



tf 



THE 



HISTORY OF NE¥ IPSWICH, 



FKOxTI ITS 



FIRST GRANT IN MDCCXXXVI. 

TO THE PRESENT TIME: 

■WITH 

GENEALOGICAL NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL FAMILIES, AND ALSO 

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 

SEPTEMBER 11, 1S50, 









BOSTON: 
GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 
1852. 



^^ 



PRINTED BY THOMAS PRINCE, 

Roxbury, Mass. 



HA 



SAMUEL APPLETON, ESQ. 

WHOSE PRIVATE WORTH AND PUBLIC BENEFACTIONS HAVE 

ADDED NEW LITSTRE TO AN HONORABLE NAME ; 

WHOSE RECOLLECTIONS OF DISTANT EVENTS HAVE CONTRIBUTED 

MUCH THAT IS INTERESTING IN THESE PAGES ; 

AND BY WHOSE ENCOURAGING PATRONAGE THEY HAVE 

BEEN STIMULATED IN THEIR EFFORTS, AND 

THUS ARE ENABLED TO PRESENT 

IT IN AN ATTRACTIVE FORM, 

THIS VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

By the authors. 

Boston, Sept. 11, 1852. 



LIST AND LOCATION OF THE ENGRAVINGS. 



L Map of the Town. 

2. View in the Village (Centre street.) 

3. View of Whitlemore Hill, 

4. Plot of the location of the township, 1736, 

5. Portion of an old map, shewing the original location of the towns 

and how they were affected by running the State line, 

6. View of the Town House and Academy, 

7. View of the second Meeting House, built 1757, 

8. View of the third Meeting House, built 1770, . 

9. Plan of the lower floor in the same, 

10. View of the fourth Meeting House, built 1812, 

11. Sketch of ihe Centre School House about 1815, 

12. Sketch of the old Academy, 

13. Plan of the Centre Village, 1850, . 

14. View of the Appleton House, 

15. Portrait of Hon. Samuel Appleton, 

16. Residence of Mrs. Everett, 
17; Residence of Joseph Barrett, . 
IB. Portrait of President Jesse Appleton, 

19. View of the Ainsworth House, 

20. View of Knight's House, formerly C. Barrett, 

21. View of Residence of George Barrett, 

22. Portrait of Charles Barrett, 

23. Portrait of Samuel Balchelder, 

24. Portrait of Benjamin Champney, 

25. Portrait of Jonas Chickering, . 

26. View of ihe Judge Farrar House, 

27. Portrait of Judge Farrar, 

28. View of the Gould House, 

29. Portrait of Dea. N. D. Gould, 

30. Former Residence of Capt. Hoar, 

31. View of the Kidder Mansion, . 

32. Portrait of Isaiah Kidder, 

33. Residence of Rev. Mr. Lee, 

34. Residence of Jesse Stearns, 

35. Residence of Edward M. Isaacs, 



9 

25 

28 
134 
144 
150 
151 
160 
196 
199 
286 
307 
308 
318 
322 
324 
320 
330 
330 
333 
335 
347 
349 
363 
364 
381 
381 
391 
408 
412 
416 
423 
446 



CONTENTS 



CHAP, I. — Phvsical History. 

Location, 9; boundaries, 10; form, 10; elevation, 10; mountains, 10; Turkey 
Hills, 10 ; Boundary mountains, 10, 12 ; Kidder Mountain, 11 ; Flat Mountain, 
11; Barrett Mountain, 11; Pratt Mountain, 11; Governor's Hill, 11; Town Hill, 
12; Knight's Hill, 12; Stratton's Hill, 12; Whittemore Hill, 12; Drift Hills, 13; 
Streams, 14 ; Souliegan, 14 ; Adams' Brook, 15 ; Saw Mill Brook, 15; Patch's 
Brook, 15; Jo. Kidder's Brook, 16; Fordvvay, 16; Ponds, 16; Binney Pond, 16; 
Hoar Pond, 16; Pratt Pond, 17; Valley of the Souhegan, 17 ; Climate, 17; Fo- 
rest Trees, 19; Wild Fruits, 20 ; Orchards, 20 ; Grain, 20; Wild Animals, 20; 
Farming, 21. 

CHAP. H. — History of the Land Title. 

Grant of New Hampshire to John Mason, 22 ; his title contested and confirm- 
ed, 22; Massachusetts Grants, 23; Grant of this township to Ipswich petitioners, 
23; derivation of name Ipswich, 23 ; petition and grant, 24 ; original plot, 25 ; 
records lost, 35 ; petition and names of Ipswich grantees, 26 ; transfer to New 
Hampshire, 27; title lost, 28; ancient map, 28; Masonian proprietors, 29; grant 
of the township, 29 ; Masonian charter of 1750, 30 ; acceptance, 32 ; limits and 
extent of the township, 32 ; apparent injustice, 33 ; mutilations of the township, 
33 ; difficulties respecting Striptown line, 34 ; adjustments, 35 ; plotting of the 
farms, 36; Act of Incorporation 1762, 37 ; renewed 1766, 38 ; interregnum, 39; 
Boundary lines, 39. 

CHAP. III. — Earliest Civil History. 

Early explorations and scouting parties, 40; traces of Indians, 41; plotting of 
the town, 42; early improvements, 42 ; earliest settlers, 43 ; progress of the set- 
tlement, 45; interruption by the French and Indian war of 1744, 45; capture of 
John Fitch and family, 45 ; desertion of the town, 46 ; Capt. Tucker remains, 
47; return of settlers, 47; means of defence, 47; recapitulation, 48. 

CHAP. IV.— Proprietary History, 1749-62. 

Masonian grantees, 50 ; their first meeting, 51 ; privileges of Massachusetts 
grantees, 51 ; compensation for mutilated lots, 51 ; apportionment of lands, 52 ; 
allotment, 52 ; list of proprietors, 53 ; erection of saw and grist mill, 53 ; John 
Chandler and his successors, 55; bridge at Capt. Hoar's, 56; provision for 
preaching, 56; conditions of charter, how far fulfilled, 56; collection of taxes, 57; 
land of delinquents sold, 58 ; change of officers, 58 ; burial-place laid out, 59 ; 
the common, 59; first paupers, 59; tax list 1763, 60; recapitulation, 61. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. V. — Incorporation to the Revolution, 1762-75. 

First town meeting, 64; number of inliabitants, 64; town sued by Kidder and 
Parker, 64 ; ponnd built, 65 ; Dr. Preston's tax, 65 ; town municipally divided, 
65; selectmen not to be paid, 65; remonstrance against liquor licenses, 66; non- 
importation resolves, 66 ; stock of ammunition, 66; burial clothes, 66 ; case of 
John Holland, 66; measures to secure representation, 67 ; progress of settlement, 
68; Col. Kidder the first magistrate, 68; anecdote, 68; deaths and removals, 69; 
raising of Wilton meeting-house, 69; valuation, 69; tax list 1774, 70. 

CHAP. VI. — Revolutionary History, 1775-6. 

Dea. Appleton chosen delegate to Exeter, 72 ; his instructions, 72 ; stock of 
ammunition increased, 72 ; Committee of Inspection and Correspondence, 72 ; 
military exercises, 73 ; alarm at Concord fight, 73 ; march of minute-men, 74 ; 
Thomas Heald commands, 74; part return, 75; enlistment of Capt. Town's com- 
pany, 74; company roll, 76; stationed at Medford, 76; battle of Bunker Hill, 77; 
the coward, 77; Josiah Walton wounded, 78; seige of Boston, 79; Rev. S. Far- 
rar chosen delegate to Provincial Congress, 81; his instructions, 81 ; duties of the 
Committee of Safety, 81 ; case of David Hills, 82 ; William Shattuck chosen 
representative, 85 ; his instructions, 86; volunteers for Canada and Lake Cham- 
plain, 86; test papers, 87; British deserter surrendered, 87; proceedings against 
lories, 88; deserter, 88; privations, 89 ; anecdote of female zeal, 87 ; Capt. 
Smith's company to White Plains, 90; Capt. Heald to Ticonderoga, 90; instruc- 
tions to representative 1776, 90. 

CHAP. VII.— Revolutionary History, 1777-80. 

Use of the town ammunition, 93 ; enlistments for three years, 93 ; small pox, 
94; Capt. Brown's company to meet Burgoyne, 93 ; battle of Hubbardston, 95 ; 
Capt. Parker's company, 95; their dress and accoutrements, 95; roll, 96 ; skir- 
mish, 97; battle of Bennington, 98; Coos alarm, 98; company at taking of Bur- 
goyne, 98 ; instructions to representative 1777, 99 ; average for services of sol- 
diers, 99; volunteers to Rhode Island, 100 ; beef rate, 101 ; sundry enlistments, 
101 ; last alarm, 101 ; list of revolutionary soldiers, 102 ; disabled, 102 ; taxes, 
103; prompt and full supplies, 103; depreciation of currency, 103; amounts paid 
soldiers, 104; vouchers, 105; expedients during the war, 106; census, 106. 

CHAP. VIII. — State and Federal Constitutions. 

Timothy Farrar delegate to form State Constitution, 107; his instructions, 108; 
draft of constitution, 109; committee to report on it, 109 ; town meeting to con- 
sider it, 109; regulations, 110; proceedings, 110; Rev. Mr. Farrar's report. 111; 
subsequent drafts, 113; instructions to representatives, 114; paper currency, 116; 
Constitution of the United States, 116; returned soldiers, 119; prospects at close 
of the war, 117; new pound, 118 ; suit of Dr. Preston, 118 ; town library, 118 ; 
warning out of town, 119; recapitulation, 119. 

CHAP. IX. — History of the last half century. 

Politics. Reading of Washington's Farewell Address, 121; political harmo- 
ny, 121 ; first democrat, 122 ; embargo, 122 ; petition to Jefierson, 122 ; his 
reply, 124; burning in effigy, 124 ; war of 1812, 125 ; enlistments, 125 ; peace, 
125. Turnpike, opposition to it, 126 ; its cost and construction, 127; high 
bridge, 128; post-olhce, 128; postmasters, 128; receipts 129; stages, postriders, 
129; first stage-coach and passengers, 129; importance of the coach and driver. 



CONTENTS. iii 

130; railroads, 131 ; maintenance of the poor, 131; poor-house and house of cor- 
rection, 132 ; regulations, 132 ; townhouse built, 133 ; celebrations of independ- 
ence, 134 ; musters, 135 ; Bethel Lodge, 135 ; abduction of a young lady, 135 ; 
colony for the West, 136; taxes in 1801, 136 ; amusements and customs, 136; 
conviviality and intemperance, 127; "New Year's Gift," 138 ; "Ladies' 
Looking Glass," 138; revival of religion 1810-11, 138; tythingmen, 139; houses 
in the village, when built, 139 ; controversies, 140. 

CHAP. X. — Meeting-Houses. 

First House, about 1740, 143 ; meetings at private houses, 143. Second 
House, 1759. Third House, 145; difficulties about location, 145; petition to 
General Court, 146; order of the Court, 147; raising in 1768, 148; disposition of 
pews, 148; galleries finished, 149; opposition continued, 149; cushion for pulpit, 
149; former house presented to the town, 150; converted into horse stables, 150; 
demolished by students, 150; description of "old meeting-house," 151; its dis- 
comforts, 154 ; the congregation, 155 ; the services, 155; the intermission, 156; 
Sabbath customs, 156; repairs, 157; used by Baptists, 157; demolished in 1816, 
157 ; relics in the town-house, 157. Fourth House, 158 ; controversy about 
location, 158; settled by a conmiittee, 159; the raising, 159; contract withSeth 
Wheeler, 159 ; sale of pews, 159 ; dedication, 160; regulations, 160; subscrip- 
tion for a bell, 160 ; presented to town with conditions, 161; stove, 161; sold to 
First Church and Society, 161 ; its dilapidated state, 162 ; Baptist House, 
162. Unitarian House, 163. Methodist House, 164. 

CHAP. XL — ^Ecclesiastical History. 

Early provision for preaching, 164; preachers, 164; call to Peter Powers, 165; 
his principles on baptism, 165; salary offered, 165; acceptance, 166; subsequent 
release, 167; call to Deliverance Smith, 167; declined, 167; Stephen Farrar 
chosen first pastor, 167; his salary, 167; letter of acceptance, 168; ordaining 
council, 169; ordination, 169 ; increase of the salary, 169 ; his supply of wood, 
170; organization of tVie church, 170; church covenant, 170 ; original members, 
172; deacons, 172; imperfect records, 172; additions to church, 173; great re- 
vival 1785, 173 ; Mr. Farrar's death, 174 ; call to Experience Porter, 175 ; re- 
consideration, 175; revival of 1811, 175 ; call to Rev. Richard Hall, 175; letter 
of acceptance, 176; ordination, 176; his ministry, 177; new church articles and 
covenant, 178; Mr. Hall's illness, 179 ; town objects to paying salary, 179 ; his 
separation and death, 180; town ministry terminates, 180; ministerial fund, 181; 
First Congregational Society organized, 181 ; Rev. L R. Barbour settled, 181. 
dismissed, 182; Rev. Charles Walker settled, 182 ; his success, 182; difficulties 
in the church, 183; retrospect, 184 ; contributions, 185 ; Sabbath school, 185. 
Baptist Church — origin, 185 ; organization, 186 ; pastors, 186 ; relations to the 
Congregational Church, 187; controversy with the town, 188; present condition, 

188. Unitarian Society, 189. LTniversalist preacher, 189. Methodist Society, 

189. Shakers, 189; delusions, 190; Millerism, 191; church music, 191 ; early 
customs, 191 ; singers' seats, 192; choristers, 192. 

CHAP. XH. — Educational History. 

First school, 194; first teacher, 194; first school-house, 195 ; school tax, 195 ; 
grammar school, 195; school fund, 196; districts, 197; character of schools, 197. 
Academy, 197; compact of the founders, 197; donations, 198; first Preceptor, 
John Hubbard, 198 ; building erected, 199 ; act of incorporation, 199 ; endow- 
ment, 202; regulations, 202 ; union with Dartmouth College, 203 ; donations of 
Abbot, Payson and Barrett, 204 ; Samuel Worcester, 204 ; David Palmer and 



iv CONTENTS. 

Warren Pierce, 204; reputation of the school, 204 ; distinguished students, 204; 
period of depression, 205 ; Joseph Milliken, 205 ; laws, 205; funds, 205 ; O. S. 
Taylor, 205; his great success, 206; subsequent depression, 206; rebellion, 206; 
new academy building, 206 ; Earl Smith, 206; S. Appleton's donation of globes 
and books, 207 ; Isaac Appieton, 207 ; library of Deniosthenian Society, 208 ; 
philosophical apparatus obtained, 208; R. A. Coffin, 208 ; S. T. Allen, 208 ; 
Charles Shedd, 208; Students' Hall, 209 ; inadequate funds, 209 ; centennial 
donation of S. Appieton, 209; list of preceptors, 210; list of trustees, 210; notice 
of John Hubbard, 210 ; Deniosthenian Society, 211 ; Social Fraternity, 211 ; 
influence of the Academy on the town, 212; professional men born in town, 213; 
school teachers, 213; list of graduates at colleges, 213; educated men not gradu- 
ates, 214; lawyers, 215 ; physicians, 215 ; missionaries, 217 ; publications con- 
nected withthe town, 219. 

CHAP. Xni. — ^Trade and Manufactures. 

Saw and grist mill, 221; fulling mill, 221; linseed oil mill, 221; oatmeal, 221; 
malting, 222; earthen ware, 222 ; pot and pearl ashes, 222; glass, 222; Robert 
Hewes, 222; failure, 222 ; first cotton factory, 224; second cotton factory, 225 ; 
amount and description of goods manufactured, 225 ; picking machine, 226 ; 
Davis factory, 226; Rhoades' factory, 226; Charles Robbins, 226; Ebenezer 
Stowell, 226; manufacture of velvets, checks, ginghams, &c. 226; power looms, 
227; small demand for American goods, 227; water loom factory, 228; Brown's 
mill, 228 ; Souhegan factory, 228 ; James Sanderson, 229 ; blue dyeing, 229 ; 
carding machine, 229 ; John Everett, 230 ; satinets, 230 ; King & Taft, 231 ; 
Thomas Adams' sawmill, 231 ; Zechariah Adams' mill, 231 ; Fletcher's mill, 

231 ; Farrar's mill, 231; Barrett's mill, 232; Hildreth's mill, 232; starch mills, 

232 ; traders, 232 ; taverns, 234 ; banks, 235 ; printing, 236 ; Mr. Ide's testa- 
ment, 227; chairs, 238; scythes, 238; carpenters, 239; blacksmiths, 239; shoe- 
makers, 239 ; hatters, 239 ; tailors, 240 ; saddlers, 240 ; bakers, 240 ; masons 
and painters, 240 ; wheelwrights, 241; watchmakers, 241; tinmen, 241; statis- 
tics of trade and manufactures 1850, 241. 

CHAP XIV. — Miscellaneous Subjects. 

Military affairs, 243; first company, 243; company of 1771, 244; divided, 244; 
officers, 245; the troop, 245; military fete 1816, 245 ; grenadiers, 246; juvenile 
companies, 246; students' company, 247; fires, 247; casualties, 249; roads and 
bridges, 250 ; working at highways, 253 ; highway taxes, 254 ; carriages, 254 ; 
temperance reform, 255 ; slaves, 256 ; vital statistics, 257 ; burial of tlie dead, 
259 ; burial grounds, 260 ; population, 261 ; valuation, 261 ; fire department, 
261; music, 262; singing schools, 262; teachers, 262; Middlesex Musical Socie- 
ty, 263; Hubbard Society, 263 ; military bands, 264; Bethel Lodge of Freema- 
sons, 264; Watatic Lodge of Odd Fellows, 265; bounties on wild animals, 265; 
tornado, 265; gales, 265 ; officers of the Masonian proprietors, 266; list of town 
officers, 266; occupants of farms, 271. 

Part Second. — Family History and Biography, 289. Families arranged in 
alphabetical order, with the exception of a few at the end. 

Additions and Corrections, 447. 

Centennial Celebration, 449. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the summer of 1849, one of the authors, (Frederic Kidder) 
visited his native town, to repair the tombstones of his ancestors, 
and collect such materials as he might, towards a family history. 
In wandering over the " old burying-ground," he was struck with 
the number of the great and good resting there, whose names and 
deeds were likely soon to be forgotten. On looking over the Town 
Records of the period of the Revolution, he could not but admire 
the firm and bold resolves of the citizens, their clear views of re- 
publican principles and constitutional liberty, and their self-sacri- 
ficing patriotism. He desired that some one should chronicle the 
history of the town, before the loss of records, or the death of the 
remaining few whose memory extended back to early times, should 
render it too late. After unavailing efforts to prevail on some one 
to undertake the task, he concluded to attempt it himself. 

On inquiry of those best able to give information, he was told, 
that materials enough to make a dozen pages relative to the history 
of the town could not be found. He however persevered. His 
first step was to employ Mr. James Spaulding to copy the inscrip- 
tions upon the tombstones, and make some extracts from the Town 
Records. The Records of the Masonian Proprietors were soon 
after obtained, together with an almost obliterated plan of the town ; 
and a series of inquiries was addressed to persons supposed to have 
some knowledge of important events in town, or who had access to 
old records and documents. The Archives of the State, at Ports- 
mouth and Concord, were carefully consulted, as well as an im- 
mense mass of manuscripts at the State House in Boston. The 
Records of old Concord, Chelmsford and other towns, from which 
the earliest settlers came, were also put in requisition ; and thus a 
considerable mass of materials relative to the Colonial and Masoni- 
an charters, the progress of the settlement, the names and origin of 
the first settlers, and the part taken in the Revolutionary war, and 

B 



Vi INTRODUCTION. 

the adoption of the New Hampshire Constitution, was obtained, at 
no small expenditure of time and money. 

When it was decided to have a Centennial Jubilee, these papers 
were placed at the disposal of Dr. Augustus A. Gould, and formed 
the material basis of the historical part of his Address on that occa- 
sion. The Address was, for the most part, an abstract of the docu- 
ments in hand ; and instead of publishing it in that form, as re- 
quested, it was determined by the two gentlemen to unite their 
labors, and by amplifying it into a substantial history, give a per- 
manent form to materials which had been obtained with great diffi- 
culty, and which it was by no means probable that any one would 
subsequently be either disposed or able to collect again. 

To this object they have devoted much of their leisure during 
the last two years, together with much time stolen from hours 
which should have been given to repose. Of the number of letters 
written, and volumes consulted, of the family records, account books 
and loose papers culled over, and of the hours spent in settling 
dates and doubtful points, none can conceive except such as have 
been engaged in similar pursuits ; and none but an antiquarian, or 
a real lover of his native town, would have undertaken the task. 

The early history during the Colonial and Masonian charters, 
the Revolutionary and Political History, and the Biographical and 
Genealogical Sketches, with the exception of the Gould and Prich- 
ard families and a few others, were mainly written by Mr. Kidder. 
The Topography and Maps, the Physical History, the account of 
Meeting-Houses, the Ecclesiastical and Educational History, the 
List of Occupants of Farms, &c., were mainly prepared by Dr. 
Gould. In other portions they have labored jointly ; and each has 
aided the other throughout. 

Of individuals from whom they have derived essential aid, they 
would distinguish above others Mr. James Spaulding, who, though 
under the disability of entire deafness, had collected numerous doc- 
uments relative to the town and its inhabitants, with the intention, 
atone time, of himself publishing them. Some of these he allowed 
to be used in the preparation of the Centennial Address ; and that 
he might not interfere with them afterwards, generously tendered 
the whole collection to the authors of the present work, believing 
that such a course would best secure the object all had in view. 
Being a resident in town, he was able to elicit from aged persons 
many interesting particulars respecting early times, and to furnish 
genealogical data and other valuable facts, which would otherwise 
have been wanting. 



INTRODUCTION. vii 

From the venerable Isaac Appleton of Dublin, whose memory 
runs back through a period of eighty years, much curious informa- 
tion has been received ; and to his brother, Samuel Appleton of 
Boston, they are almost equally indebted. 

From Mr. Josiah Walton of Temple, have been received the 
invaluable Journals of his father, containing incidents relative to 
the Revolution, and subsequent times, and almost the only record 
extant of the Church and of the Deaths, for a period of forty years. 

From Messrs. Samuel Holden, John Gould, Thaddeus Taylor 
and other aged persons, much of the previously unwritten history 
has been obtained. 

Hon. Samuel Batchelder furnished a valuable account of the rise 
and progress of Manufactures in town. 

Hon. Timothy Farrar has heartily co-operated, and has prepar- 
ed the Family Histories of the Farrars, Prestons and their connec- 
tions, as well as many facts throughout the work. 

From Dea. N. D. Gould, who for forty years was conversant with 
all the transactions in town, much information has been obtained. 

Mr. George M. Champney furnished the History of the Champ- 
ney Family ; and the Statistics of Manufactures at the present time. 

To Benjamin Champney they are indebted for most of the 
sketches of landscapes, public buildings, and some private resi- 
dences. 

To Samuel G. Drake, Esq., the historian and antiquary, they 
are indebted for many indications of the sources of information, as 
well as for some materials. 

Among numerous others we may finally mention Hon. John 
Preston, Rev. Samuel Lee, Rev. Addison Brown, Dr. T. H. Coch- 
ran, George Fox, and others, as having taken a special interest in 
forwarding the work. Many ladies also, have contributed informa- 
tion of much interest. 

The heads of individuals, as well as the wood cuts of private 
buildings, have been furnished by the families interested, and at 
their expense. 

The general Map of the town has been made from inspection and 
recollection, and not from actual survey ; the course of the streams 
being in a great measure laid down from the recollections of juven- 
ile fishing excursions. The plan of the Central Village is also de- 
lineated by calculation only. Dr. Cochran has greatly aided in 
these endeavors. 

The subject of local history is becoming every day of more im- 
portance, and although these pages may have but an unimportant 



I 



viii INTRODUCTION. 

bearing on general history, it is mainly composed of facts before 
unpublished, and is so much added to New England history. Few, 
besides those who have spent some portion of their lives in the 
town, can be supposed to be interested in all the details ; but to the 
citizens, for whom it was designed, we presume that all facts 
which tend to exhibit the progress of the town in its settlement, 
its inhabitants, its enterprises and institutions, its social manners 
and customs. Sec, however trivial they may seem to others, will 
prove interesting. Indeed, some things have been recorded, not 
for any importance which they may hold in the estimation of any 
one at the present moment, but for the interest that may attach to 
them when another century shall have rolled away. 

That they shall give entire satisfaction to their townsmen, they 
by no means flatter themselves. Errors will doubtless be found. 
It will be felt that too much has been said of some and too little of 
others. But they have endeavored to make the best use of the facts 
in their possession ; and had persons been as faithful in giving in- 
formation as the authors have been in soliciting it, many errors 
would have been avoided, and more completeness gained. In their 
estimate of individual character or acts, they may have unwittingly 
given offence. They know how sensitive one is, and should be, to 
the peculiarities of his ancestors ; and, therefore, anecdotes which 
to the general reader would appear harmless, might prove offensive 
to relatives. To " say nothing of the dead except what is good," 
is an ancient and most charitable maxim ; but it is by no means 
one which can be admitted in impartial history. So, too, in regard 
to points which have been matters of controversy, it is very difficult 
to avoid seeming to be a partizan, however carefully language may 
be chosen. ' They do not expect or wish to escape criticism ; and 
whether censured or praised, they cannot be deprived of the satis- 
faction, in their own minds, at having been the diligent and well- 
meaning chroniclers of their native town. 




Boston, September, 1S52. 



NE¥ IPSWICH. 



CHAPTER I, 



PHYSICAL HISTORY. 



LOCATION ; BOUNDARIES ; FACE OF THE COUNTRY ; MOUNTAINS AND 
HILLS ; STREAMS ; GEOLOGY ; CLIMATE ; WILD ANIMALS ; FOREST 
TREES AND WILD FRUITS ; SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS ; CAPABILITIES 
FOR FARMING. 




^ vT and uninteresting as 
may be the local 
features of any place to 
.&^» " ' the stranger's eye, they 
assume the highest interest Avhen 
looked upon as the familiar land- 
,r . _ V marks of our birth-place 
^v or our home. Around them 

^^ -^ cluster the most hallowed 

H*''^Nr*!s?ai,^i«l*#IW* associations; and no delin- 
eations, whether of the pencil or the pen, are contemplated 
with more delight, than those which represent the scenes 
most familiar to our eyes, with which our own earliest 
acts are identified, or where our revered ancestors lived 
and toiled. 

The town of New Ipswich is situated in Hillsborough 
county. New Hampshire, in latitude 42° 44' north, and lon- 
gitude 71° 50' west. It is on the southern margin of the 
State, adjoining Massachusetts ; is 50 miles from Concord, 70 
2 



10 PHYSICAL HISTORY. 

miles from Portsmouth, and 50 miles northwestwardly from 
Boston. It has on the south, the towns of Ashby and Ash- 
burnham ; on the west, Rindge ; on the north, Sharon and 
Temple ; on the east. Mason. 

By a survey made in 1S04, its boundaries are described as 
follows : — "beginning at the northeast corner, running north, 
70° 40' west, on the line of Temple and Sharon, six miles, 60 
rods; thence south 1° 30' east on Rindge, 5 miles, 85 rods; 
thence east 8° south on the State line, and the towns of Ash- 
burnham and Ashby, 6 miles, 93 rods ; thence north 2° west 
on Mason, 5 miles, 93 rods, to the point first mentioned," — 
being a mean of a little over five and a quarter miles from 
north to south, by six and a quarter from east to west, and 
containing an area of about 21,000 acres, of which about one 
hundred are covered with water. 

Its present shape is a rhomboid, or oblique quadrangle, 
inclining to northwest and southeast. Since its first plotting, 
however, its territory has been subjected to various transposi- 
tions and curtailments, which will be fully detailed in sub- 
sequent pages. It is situated upon the first considerable rise 
of land above the seaboard in that direction ; and as we ap- 
proach it from the east, over the Turkey Hills, it would seem 
to be very considerably elevated. But a corresponding de- 
scent, as we enter the town, reduces the elevation of its prin- 
cipal water courses above the sea to about 150 feet. The 
average altitude of its territory, however, may be about 400 
feet. 

The surface is highly diversified with mountain, hill and 
dale ; and there is no level area, many acres in extent, within 
its limits. The principal elevations consist of a spur from the 
Boundary Mountains, which range through Lyndeboro', Tem- 
ple and Greenfield, running obliquely across the town, from 
near the middle of the nordiern boundary, in a southwesterly 
course, to near the southwest corner, thus separating the town 
into two divisions, one below and one beyond the mountains ; 
the westerly or transmontane portion forming a steppe whose 
general level is much higher than the easterly portion. The 
range is broken by ravines into more or less isolated summits, 
which are designated by different names. The northernmost, 



MOUNTAINS. 11 

from its having been owned by Col. Reuben Kidder, is called 
the Kidder Mountain. It is of an unusually symmetrical 
form when seen from the east, and being more isolated than 
the rest, is also more conspicuous. It is about 1000 feet 
high. On the north it is separated from the mountains in 
Temple by a deep ravine through which the old ''countrey 
road" towards Canada, laid out by the original proprietors, 
used to run. On the south, after descending somewhat, the 
summit expands into a sort of table-land, and is known as the 
" Flat Mountain." Separated from this, by another ravine 
through which the old turnpike passes, is a still less elevated 
mountain, usually known as the " Barrett Mountain " or 
"Barrett Pasture." This extends, in a continuous ridge, for 
three or four miles, gradually increasing in height, and at its 
southern portion is denominated " Pratt Mountain." Just 
over the boundary of the town, in Ashburnham, the range 
terminates abruptly in the Watatic Mountain, which has an 
altitude of about 1800 feet.* It is intermediate between Mo- 
nadnock and Wachusett Mountains, and about equidistant 
from them. These three isolated mountains form three con- 
spicuous landmarks in travelling from the seaboard towards 
the Connecticut River, and some one of them is almost always 
in sight. 

Besides these elevations, which are dignified, and not im- 
properly, by the name of mountains, the town is still farther 
hemmed in by elevations which receive the humbler appella- 
tion of hills. A low ridge between Pratt Momitain and 
Watatic is called Governor's Hill ; though from what this ap- 
pellation arose we have been unable to determine ; as Gov- 
ernor Wentworth once owned a lot a little to the eastward of 
it, the name might have been applied from that fact. Along 
the eastern margin of the town, the western slope of the Tur- 

* Watatic Mountain (sometimes spelled Watahook, Wettetook or Wateticks) 
must long have been a resort both for the Indian and White man for purposes of 
observation. On a rock at its summit are vestiges of the initials of three persons, 
with a date of 1642 or 1662, probably the latter, as the gnawing tooth of time for 
nearly 200 years has left them nearly illegible. They were probably made by 
some persons who were exploring the country, and had ascended this height for 
an extended view. On the summit is a large pile of stones, which has been 
accumulated in obedience to an Indian legend, that every one who visited the 
summit must add a stone, or become unlucky for life. 



^2 PHYSICAL HISTORY. 

key Hills presents an nnhroken barrier. In the early days of 
the settlement, this was denominated the " Town Hill" and 
indeed most of the earliest settlers at first resided upon it ; but 
it has long been familiarly known as "Knights' Hill," and 
" Stratton's Hill." Closing up the southern border is the 
" Whittemore Hill," a very remarkable elevation of a some- 
what semi-conical form, presenting a very abrupt face to the 
eastward, and sloping regularly and gently downwards on the 
three other sides, to the level of the Souhegan which bathes 
its western base. It was evidently produced, geologically 
speaking, by an upheaval from the east, the broken edges of 
the elevated strata presenting themselves on its abrupt face, 
while all the strata slope strongly to the west, like a pitched 
roof, the corresponding eastern pitch being wanting. Its 
summit affords by far the best prospect of any elevation in the 
town. Westvvardly, just peeping over Pratt Mountain, though 
far beyond it, is seen the acute pinnacle of Monadnock ; di- 
rectly north lies the valley of the town itself, shut in by 
Temple and the Boundary Mountains ; nearly every dwelling 
and the limits of every farm east of the mountains, with the 
meanderings of all the streams through the valleys, may be 
seen from this point. To the south are seen Ashby and 
Ashburnham, and all the region onward to the Watchusett 
Mountain; while to the eastward, a glorious landscape is 
spread out, extending for something like fifty miles in every 
direction, and including nearly the whole area between this 
point and the sea-coast. In full and distinct view are the 
towns of Groton and Townsend; and still farther in the dis- 
tance the Merrimac, and the towns along its banks as far 
as, and even beyond, the remarkable twin mountains (the 
Uncanoonucks) in Goff'stown; and then an undefined back- 
groimd, from which definite objects can be made out only 
when the light is favorable. As the greater part of Watatic 
Mountain may be seen, with the naked eye, from the summit 
of the Bunker Hill monument, at eight or nine o'clock in the 
morning, there is no doubt that the monument might be seen 
with the telescope from this hill, under favorable circum- 
stances. Once we happened to be upon the spot just at sun- 
set, when the whole region was marbled with patches of 



HILLS. 13 

snow, the atmosphere free of smoke, and thus every circnm- 
stance combined in the most favorable manner for a clear view. 
Every thing was distinct, and the outlines of the most distant 
objects, onward to the vicinity of the sea, were well defined. 
Never were we more forcibly impelled to fall in adoration, 
than at such a wonderful prospect of God's beautiful world. 
And yet, not one in twenty of the citizens ever thought of 
visiting this spot, such a spot as thousands are annually mak- 
ing long pilgrimages and spending large sums to reach, for 
the mere pleasure of the prospect. 

Near the pinnacle of the Whittemore Hill, stands a solitary 
pine tree of peculiar shape, a landmark familiar to the eye of 
every citizen ; it doubtless dates back as far as the settlement 
of the town, and seems to have been left when the land about 
it was cleared. In our youthful days it flourished in green 
old age ; some years since, the bolt of heaven blasted it ; and 
it now stands a leafless frame-work of its former comeliness. 
As one of the most notable objects in the town, for a long series 
of years, and somewhat emblematical of the century which 
has passed, and especially for the regard we privately hold for 
it, as one of the objects most intimately connected with the 
romitnce of our boyhood, we deem it worthy of perpetuation 
in this history, and have therefore given its " counterfeit pre- 
sentment " in the sketch at the head of the chapter. 

The hill west of the village is of a somewhat similar char- 
acter; and from its summit beautiful prospects to the east 
and northeast, well worth the trouble of the ascent, may be ob- 
tained through some of the openings in the eastern hills. The 
Kidder Mountain presents a much more extended prospect, 
especially to the westward : but in proportion to its greater 
elevation does the view become indistinct. 

Scattered here and there, especially at the northern portion 
of the town, are several rounded hills, of from two to three 
hundred feet elevation above the principal water com'ses, of 
the kind usually denominated drift kills, composed chiefly of 
gravel, and rounded boulders and pebbles of granite and quartz, 
many of them of great size, brought in by ice or floods from 
the northwest ; the fixed rocks being all metamorphic schists 
and gneiss. The larger of the granite boulders are used for 



14 PHYSICAL HISTORY. 

foundations for buildings, and all other purposes requiring 
dressed stone. These hills were all well wooded, every part 
of them readily cultivated, and have afforded some of the best 
farms in the town. Of these we may mention the Beech Hill 
on the Kidder Farm, and those on what are known as the 
Boynton, Gould, Wilson and Richardson farms. 

If we now regard the town as situated east of the moun- 
tains, which we may do without any great violation of reality, 
inasmuch as not over a dozen lots, out of a hundred or more on 
and over the mountams, have ever been occupied except for 
pasturage, and look at it as it first breaks on our view in 
passing up the turnpike, over the brim of Knights' Hill, or as 
we see it from the Whittemore Hill, we find it to be a 
deep, elongated basin, twice as long from north to south as 
from east to west, shut in on all sides by hills which may well 
bear the name of mountains, somewhat, indeed, like the fabled 
valley of Rasselas : so that the inhabitants within the valley 
can never look beyond their own precincts upon the neighbor- 
ing towns, without ascending some of the heights which skirt 
it, except indeed towards the northeast, where the Temple 
and Lyndeboro' mountains soon shut off the view in that 
direction ; and in like manner it is so hidden from other towns, 
that from whatever direction one approaches it, the location 
and features of the town burst suddenly upon him. Many 
sunny slopes are thus presented which favor cultivation, and 
the climate is no doubt decidedly meliorated in consequence of 
the protection afforded by the range of mountams on the north 
and west. 

As might be at once inferred, from the mountainous walls 
which surround the township, it is well watered by numer- 
ous rivulets flowing down in every direction towards the prin- 
cipal stream, which occupies the lowest level of the basin. 
This stream is the Souhegan,* which has its source in Great 

* This is found variously spelled — Soughagen, Souhegonack, Sowheage, So- 
hegen, Souhegan ; it is of course the Indian name, and its signification has not 
been satisfactorily made out. Its proper orthography is said to be "Souhega- 
nash," derived from souheke, a plain, and nash, which is added to inanimate 
nouns to indicate the plural. " River of the Plains" might be an appropriate 
appellation when applied to its lower portions, though quite inapplicable to its 
bed in this town. — Hon. C. E. Poller. 



STREAMS. 15 

and Little Watatic Ponds in Ashburnham. and soon entering 
this town at its southern border, pursues a nearly direct course 
east of north at first, under the name of South Branch, when 
it unites with the North Branch, originatmg in Pratt's Pond 
and the base of Barrett mountain. The united stream con- 
tinues its course, inclining somewhat more eastwardly, and 
crosses the eastern Ime of the town just above Mason Village, 
falling at last into the Merrimack, in the town of Merrimack. 

The principal tributaries to the Souhegan are as follows, 
viz. : the Adams Brook, arising in the gorge between the Flat 
Mountain and the Barrett Mountain, flowing southwardly 
along the base of the mountain range, and receiving also a 
stream from the north end of the Pond, when the water is 
high, enters the North Branch about a mile below its source. 

Saw-Mill Brook arises about the base of the Kidder Moun- 
tain, and flowing through the Kidder and Appleton estates, 
arrives at the Starch Factory, then passes through the inter- 
vale to the north of the village onward to the Forge, and falls 
into the Souhegan half a mile below the High Bridge. It de- 
rives its name from the fact that in early times a saw-mill, 
probably the one erected by the Massachusetts Proprietors, 
was situated on it. The existence of such a mill has been 
warmly contested ; and its position, if it ever existed, has been 
variously located. That there was such a mill, and that its 
location was either at the old Farrar's Mills, or at the dam a 
little above the Starch Factory, just on the borders of the Ap- 
pleton lot, we think clearly established by the record of the 
laying out of a road in 1757.* 

Patch's Brook has its sources about the Gould and Wilson 
Hills, and flowing in nearly an east direction somewhat south 
of the school-house, joins the Souhegan just before passing the 
town line. 

* This road was laid out from the road to Mason, beginning "near the north- 
east corner of No. 29, running westerly on lot 30 to Benjamin King's lot (the 
Smith lot) south of King's house to lot 38 (late John Appleton's wood lot) to 
Oliver Procter's house lot (the Farrar lot) and to the Saw-Mill Brook about ten 
pole above the mill ; then turning southerly on said lot to the south side of O. 
Procter's house (the old Academy) and so on to the main road." (P. R. 236) — 
the latter part evidently answering to the road as now travelled to the Starch 
Factory. This was many years before Mr. Farrar resided in town and erected 
the Grist-mill so well known. A Saw-mill of more recent origin is said to have 
been burnt, near the site of Farrar's Mill. 



16 PHYSICAL HISTORY. 

The brook flowing through the village was designated, in 
the early records, as "Jo. Kidder's Brook" ; and the place 
where the road to Temple and Mason crosses the Saw-Mill 
Brook, was known as the " Fordway." * 

Besides these tributaries of the Souhegan, there are, in 
the northwest, streamlets that flow into a large branch of the 
Contoocook, which passes from Sharon through " Tophet 
Swamp," to Jafli-ey, and soon into Peterboro'. 

From the western slope of the Barrett mountain numerous 
rivulets flow down, and form a considerable stream, which 
takes a southwesterly course, passing out of the town near the 
middle of its western boundary into Rindge, and discharging 
into JMenomony (Monomnock, Wanomnock) Pond. 

Along the road to Temple, arising in the Wilson farm, a 
small stream runs northwardly, and empties into a branch 
which joins the Souhegan in Wilton. 

Near the southwest corner of the town, a little beyond the 
height of land at that part, is a small pond, usually called the 
Binney Pond, from which a stream flows south-westwardly 
into Ashburnham, and is one of the sources of Miller's River, 
emptying into the Connecticut. 

Still another small pond, called Hoar's Pond, covering only 
five or six acres, quite unknown to a majority of the inhabit- 
ants, is situated in a little basin upon the height of land at 
the southern part of the Knights' Hill range, southwest of the 
Wheeler tav6rn. From this a stream issues which flows 
south-eastwardly, and is often suflicient to work a small saw- 
mill, soon after it enters Mason. W^hen the pond is full, it 
has another outlet, whence flows another stream in a southerly 
direction passing into Ashby, This is one of the sources of 
the Squannicock, a branch of the Nashua, and with other 
small streams at the soutlieast corner of the town, finally 
enters that river in Townsend. 

The fact, as above indicated, that the streams at the four 
corners of the town all flow away from the town, and become 
tributary to as many diflerent trunks, arises from the generally 

* In laying out the road from the village green, where Dr. Barr formerly re- 
sided, toward Temple, it reads, " and so on to the foard-way over the Saw-ruill 
Brook, and on as marks direct," &c. (P. R. 216.) 



PONDS. 17 

elevated position of the town, and the pecnhar bulwark of 
hills by which it is surrounded, as already explained. 

Pratt's Pond is the only one of any considerable magnitude ; 1 
and this has an area of not over fifty acres, enclosed between -, 
two of the Pratt Mountains. / 

The descent of the streams is so rapid, that water-power is 
afforded in an unusual degree for tlie size of the streams, and 
has been one of the chief sources of the enterprize and pros- 
perity of the inhabitants. By the cutting off of the wood, 
however, evaporation takes place to so great an amount, that 
all the streams have greatly diminished in size within the last 
fifty years. On the Souhegan are three principal points pecu- 
liarly adapted by nature for the employment of water-power, 
where the river passes between high rocky walls, caused by 
the fracture of the rocks in its course. At the High Bridge, 
for instance, one of the most picturesque spots in the town, 
there is a narrow chasm something like eighty or ninety feet 
deep, through which the stream tumbles in cataracts, and 
where it is easily dammed and conveyed into any desired 
channel. This fissure is continued to the upper factories. It 
is also found at the Mill Village, and at Mason Village. By 
an examination of the map it will be seen that all these gorges 
lie in nearly a straight line, about northeast and southwest, 
and were all doubtless produced at the same time, by one 
great geological convulsion. Soon after leaving the Mill Vil- 
lage, however, the stream escapes to the southward and joins 
the south branch in the valley ; but traces of the geological 
fissure, in its true direction, running between what used to be 
the Shattuck and Safford lots, are quite conspicuous. Before 
this disruption, the rocks at the High Bridge must have com- 
pletely shut up the passage of the waters, which must then 
have tumbled over a lofty precipice of from eighty to one hun- 
dred feet, and have flowed back far into the meadows above ; 
perhaps indeed, submerging all the low lands to the south, and 
forming no inconsiderable lake. 

On account of the sudden elevation of the territory, the cli- 
mate is somewhat more severe than in the towns in the im- 
mediate vicinity to the eastward. The peculiar conformation 
of the surface, however, renders it very different in different 
3 



18 PHYSICAL HISTORY. 

parts of the town. On the slopes exposed to the north and 
west, the winters are very cold and the summers mild : while 
the eastern and southern slopes, protected by the mountains, 
are comparatively tolerable. It is believed that no notes of 
the state of the barometer or thermometer were ever kept in 
town. Among the memoranda of Judge Champney, were 
occasional allusions to remarkable states of the weather. For 
the only continuous journal we are indebted to Josiah Walton, 
who may be regarded as the annalist of the town ; to whose 
private notes we are indebted for much of our revolutionary 
history, and almost entirely for all we know of the history of 
the church for forty or fifty years. We have a series of mem- 
oranda extending from 1777 to 1817, forty years, in which, 
.without thermometer or barometer, he has contrived by cer- 
tain significant rural phenomena to give a general idea of the 
climatal character of each year. We have prepared a classi- 
fied abstract of his notes, presenting only the most remarkable 
seasons. Living, as he did, on the bleakest spot in town, due 
allowance must be made for an extreme of early winter and 
late summer, which would not apply to the more sheltered 
parts of the town. 

Haying. — Usually commenced the first week in July and 
ended the last week in August. Earliest co?nme?iccme7it, 1811, 
July 4 ; latest^ the next year, 1812, July 20 ; earliest termina- 
iion, 1798, Aug. 19 ; latest, 1807, Sept. 14, in which year it 
is noted, Sept. 12, " mowing in frost." 

Frost. — Early autmnn. 1808, Aug. 17, killed corn and 
"taters; " 1792, Aug. 27, small; 1813, Aug. 19; 1783, Sept. 
3, frosty morning ; 1814, Sept. 6, "corn and taters bit" ; 1808, 
Sept. 22, ground frozen; 1790, Oct. 27, great freeze. Late 
spring. 1794, June 16; 1780, June 5, ground frozen; 1787, 
June 2, water frozen; 1794, May 17, great freeze, killed much 
flax and grain; 1808, May 2, hard freeze; 1801, June 6 and 
7, corn and beans killed. 

Snow. — Eai'ly autumn. 1792, Sept. 7, ground covered ; 
1783, Oct. 9, very snowy; 1786, Oct. 30, 4 inches; 1789, Oct. 
26, 3 inches; 1797, Oct. 23 and 25, 5 inches; 1804, Oct. 9 
and 10, and on 27th, 8 inches. Late autumn, (the first of 
the season) 1784, Dec. 18, 10 inches; 1791, Dec. 22, 14 



FOREST TREES. 19 

inches; 1805, Dec. 24, 6 inches; 1811, Dec. 24, 15 inches; 
1813, Dec. 30, 20 inches. Late spring, 1777, May 1, about 
14 inches; 1781, May 1, great storm of wind and rain — river 
rose ten feet in twenty-four hours — snow at noon, over shoes — 
trees half-leaved out; 1785, May 20, snow; 1799, May 12, 
two inches; 1803, May 8, 3 inches; 1811, May 3 to 5, 9 
inches. 

In 1785, April 22, there was sledding over the fences; in 
1804, it was said the snow had been five feet deep ; 1809, 
very little snow before March ; 1802, ground nearly bare till 
Jan. 21, and mud till Feb. 18. 

Rain. — 1787, Sept. 19, great flood; 1794, Jan. 23, great 
rain ; 1807, very wet season ; 1809, very wet — hay lay from 
July 8 to 24th ; 1814, Aug. 28, very great rain. 

Wind. — Great wind, very cold, June 24, 1814 ; great wind, 
Sept. 15, 1815. 

Very dry year, 1782. Remarkably cold day, Feb. 14, 1817. 

No ores or interesting minerals have been found here. 

In consequence of this same elevation of the surface as we 
approach the town from the east, an equally sudden transi- 
tion is seen in the vegetation, especially in the forest trees. 
After riding more than forty miles through oaks, pines, and 
maples, we come at once upon the hemlock, beech, spruce, 
sugar maple, yellow and black birch, none of which have 
been seen along the whole distance ; while the chesnut, hick- 
ory, locust, and juniper entirely disappear, though all of them 
are found in some of the adjoining towns. Similar changes 
are also manifest in the shrubs and grasses. 

The other prevailing forest trees are white, red and black 
oak, in the northern and western portions ; white and red ma- 
ple, bass-wood, ash, hornbeam, and black cherry, white birch, 
poplar. The two latter are regarded as a secondary growth, 
subsequent upon the removal of the original hemlock, maple 
and beech forests. West of the mountains are found pines, 
larches and firs, which are very rarely seen to the east. Indeed 
the inhabitants have been chiefly dependent on the towns of 
Sharon and Peterboro', for pine lumber of all kinds. The 
native elm and the sassafras are occasionally seen. The but- 



20 PHYSICAL HISTORY. 

ternut is cultivated in a few instances. Wild grapes and 
low blueberries are rare ; whortleberries occur nowhere within 
the town. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and par- 
tridge-berries are abundant ; and high blueberries occur in all 
the swamps. 

Fine orchards formerly existed on almost every farm ; but 
most of them have been suffered to go to decay, and some 
have been cut down altogether. Very little attention has been 
given to the cultivation of fruit, or to gardening. 

Of the cereal grains, corn and rye succeed best. Wheat is 
cultivated on nearly every farm, but yields well on but a few ; 
as is the case in all regions destitute of lime. Potatoes and 
beans thrive well, and the latter, in earlier times, was one of 
the chief articles of subsistence for the inhabitaiits. 

The pioneer settlers found here the bear, the wolf and the 
deer, and it is only recently that they have entirely disap- 
peared. They have all been seen within the memory of per- 
sons now living in town. In April, 1781, a great wolf hunt 
was held by the inhabitants of New Ipswich, Jaffrey and 
Sharon. According to a concerted plan, a large area was sur- 
rounded, including Tophet swamp ; but it is said that the en- 
terprise proved fruitless. A bounty on wolves was proposed 
as late as 1784; and a "deer reef," or deer-keeper, to take 
care that the deer were not destroyed at certain seasons of the 
year, was annually chosen, up to the year 1793. As lately as 
1808, a bear weighing ten score was killed by Ephraim Heald, 
in Temple. Beavers were not rare, as is evidenced by the 
traces of beaver-dams still existing in some of the meadows. 
Otters were known to some of the inhabitants now living. 
Salmon, shad and alewives sometimes made their ascent up 
the Souhegan, until their access was cut off by dams built in 
the towns below. Wild turkeys were abundant, especially 
along the eastern border, on the slope of the hills where the 
chesnut is found, a circumstance which gave to the whole 
range, as far as Lunenburg, the title of Turkey Hills. 

The following incident is related by an aged gentleman. 
" My grandmother Emerson, who lived at the southwest part 
of the town, was walking to a neighbor's, having on a bright 
scarlet cloak. The wild turkies on discovering the red dress, 



AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES. 21 

came into the road to give battle. She retreated to the house, 
and my grandfather came to the rescue with his gun ; but 
the flint being gone, his wife took a coal of fire, and when he 
had levelled the gun, she communicated the fire, killing two 
turkies at one shot." It is said on good authority that deacon 
Ephraim Adams, was once attending a coal-pit on the moun- 
tains, and threshing grain at the same time. The wild tur- 
kies came from the woods to search for grain among the 
chaff", among whom he made great havoc with his gun. 
Among them was a famous cock turkey which he had failed 
to obtain a shot at, until he had no shot left. At last a good 
chance presented, when he broke up a pewter spoon, loaded 
his gun with it, and made a successful shot, the turkey when 
stripped weighing eighteen pounds. 

On the whole. New Ipswich may be considered a good 
farming town, not so much however for tillage as for the 
raising of cattle and other live stock. The portions adapted 
to cultivation are in patches of small extent, scattered here 
and there, while the pasturage is abundant and of the best 
quality. Each farmer, however, finds available soil enough 
to supply the wants of his family. Formerly, most of the 
accessible lots were occupied as farms, without much regard 
to their adaptation for the general purposes of a farm. But 
of late years many of them have been abandoned, and the 
farmer chooses rather to bestow his labor upon a smaller lot, 
more easy of cultivation, than to difflise it over many broad 
acres, with no better reward. Hence, there is a tendency to 
concentrate in the vallies, and give up the old mountainous 
and rocky farms to pasturage. While at first thought this 
abandonment of old farms would seem to indicate that the 
occupation of the farmer was held in disrepute, instead of be- 
ing held the noblest of all, as it should be, it is in truth the 
adoption of a wiser policy in farming, namely, to choose and 
cultivate more diligently those portions adapted to cultivation, 
and to appropriate the more intractable portions to their 
legitimate purposes, timber and grazing. Scientific farming 
has scarcely been thought of, as yet, in the town ; but a 
few successful examples, now in progress, must soon force 
the conviction that this is not a mere theory. 



CHAPTER II. 
HISTORY OF THE LAND TITLE. 

GRANT OF KING JAMES TO MASON; MASSACHUSETTS GRANTS; TITLE 
BECOMES void; PETITION OF THE GRANTEES; MASONIAN GRANT; 
DIFFICULTIES RESPECTING THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY ; ADJUST- 
MENT ; ACTS OF INCORPORATION. 

In the year 1621, King James granted to John Mason all 
the land embraced between the Piscataqua and Naumkeag, 
(that is, between Portsmouth and Salem,) and sixty miles 
back into the interior. Under this grant, he, with his asso- 
ciates, took possession, and made settlements at Portsmouth, 
Dover, and elsewhere, as early as 1623; and this was the 
germ of the Province of New Hampshire. Very slow progress 
in settlement was made ; Mason died, the Revolution in Eng- 
land supervened, and the claim was neglected. 

After the Restoration, the heirs of Mason attempted to revive 
their title ; but the colonists resisted their claim, and a series 
of sales, lawsuits and petitions to the Grown ensued, until at 
last, in 1745, it was decided that John Tufton Mason, a na- 
tive of Boston and great-grandson of the original grantee, 
held a rightful title to the Province of New Hampshire. 

Meantime, the work of settlement had gone on, and many 
new positions in the interior were occupied ; and as there were 
numerous disturbances from the Indians, the settlers had fre- 
quent occasion to call upon their neighbors, in the older and 
more powerful Province of Massachusetts, for aid and protec- 
tion. Massachusetts promptly responded to these solicitations, 
partly, no doubt, from motives of humanity, but partly also, 
from the fact that a large tract of the southern portion of the 
Masonian territory was in dispute between the two Provinces ; 
and Massachusetts was willing, by this means, to fortify her 



MASSACHUSETTS GRANTS. 23 

claim to the domain, by thus laying the settlers under obliga- 
tion, and securing their favor and adherence.* 

Still further to strengthen its interests in this latter project, 
as we learn from a historian of the time,f " about the middle 
of the last century, the General Assembly of Massachusetts 
was in the humor of distributing the property of much vacant 
or Province land ; perhaps in good policy and forethought, — 
to secure to the Massachusetts people, by possession, the pro- 
perty of part of some controverted lands." . . . "Our Assem- 
bly, at that time, were in such a hurry to appropriate vacant 
lands, that several old towns were encouraged to petition for 
an additional new township ; and when they were satiated, the 
Assembly introduced others, by way of bounty to the descend- 
ants of the soldiers in the Indian War of King Philip, so call- 
ed, (1675,) and these were called Narragansett townships ; 
and others to the soldiers in Sir William Phipps' expedition 
into Canada, (1690,) which were called Canada toivnships." 
Thus there were " Dorchester Canada," now Ashburnham — 
" Rowley Canada," now Rindge — " Ipswich Canada," now 
Winchendon, which, on account of its name, has generally 
been confounded with the town of New Ipswich. 

These grants were made at the session of the General Court 
of Massachusetts for the year 1735-6 ; so that many towns 
refer the initial measures which resulted in their settlement, to 
this date. Among the number is the town of New Ipswich. 
It was among those granted to petitioners from the old towns, 
and in behalf of sundry inhabitants of Ipswich.J The follow- 



* The following extract from the petition of John Rindge, in 1731, shows that 
the heirs of Mason were not blind to these schemes. " Ihat your said Province 
of New Hampshire being inclosed (as it were) between the several parts of the 
province of Massachusetts, is daily encroached and usurped upon'by its populous 
and powerful neighbors of the Massachusetts, both in matter of property and gov- 
ernment ; and without your Majesty's Gracious Interposition will soon be ab- 
sorbed and lost, as well in disherison of your Majesty's Crown as to the utter 
ruin of your faithful subjects and tenants in New Hampshire, who hold imme- 
diately of and under your Majesty." 

t Summary, Historical and Political, &c. of the British Settlements in Amer- 
ica, by William Douglass, M. D. 8vo. 2 vols. 1755. 

t The town of Ipswich, in England, is said by some antiquarians to have de- 
rived its name from Eba, a Saxon queen who resided there, and wich, a Saxon 
word meaning place, or home : hence Ebuswich. Others derive the name from 
the river Gippin ; hence Gippeswich, the place of the Gippin, or winding river. 



24 HISTORY OF THE LAND TITLE. 

iiig is a copy of the doings in answer to the petition, obtained 
from the State Archives : 

" PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
" Jany 15th, 1735-36. In the House of Representatives. 

In answer to the Petition of John Wainwright and John Choat 
Esqr Representatives of the town of Ipswich ; In behalf of sundry 
inhabitants of sd town, Voted that the prayer be granted and that 
John Wainwright and John Choat Esqrs, with such as shall be 
joyned by the Honorable board be a committee at the charge of the 
Grantees and such of the Inhabitants as they shall think most 
proper, to lay out a township of six miles square in some of the un- 
appropriated lands of the Province and that they return a plat 
thereof to this court within twelve months for confirmation, and that 
for the more effectual bringing forward the settlement of the sd new 
town ; Ordered that the said town be laid out into sixty-three 
equal shares, one of which to be for the first settled minister, one 
for the ministry and one for the school, and that on each of the 
other sixty shares the Grantees do within three years after the con- 
firmation of the plan settle one good family who shall have a house 
built on his home lot of eighteen feet square and seven feet stud at 
the least, and finished ; that each rightor Grantee have six acres of 
Land brought to and plowed or brought to English Grass and fitted 
for mowing, that they Settle a learned and orthodox minister and 
build a convenient Meeting house for the public worship of God, 
and that said committee take bond of each Settler of forty pounds 
for his complying with the conditions of settlement, and that each 
settler that shall fail of performing the aforesaid conditions shall 
forfeit his share or right in the said new town to the Government and 
the same to be disposed of as they shall see cause. 

" In Council read and concurred and Thomas Berry, Esqr. is 
joined with the committee in the said affair. 

" Consented to, J. Belcher. 

«' In Council May 20, 1735-6. A plat of a tract of Land laid 
out by Jonas*Houghton Surveyer and the chairman on oath to ful- 
fill a grant for a township of six miles square of land for a township 
made by the General Court to the Inhabitants of the town of Ips- 
wich, bordering Southerly on a township laid out to Tileston and 
others, Canada Soldiers, and adjoyning to the town of Townsend. 

" In the House of Representatives, Read and ordered that the 
within plat be accepted as it is reformed by the pricked lines as 
within set forth so as it adjoyns to Townsend, and the lands within 
mentioned and so described are confirmed to the Grantees men- 
tioned in the Grant of a township made by this court in their late 
setting to sundry Inhabitants of the town of Ipswich, on the prayer 



ORIGINAL PLAT OF THE TOWN. 25 

of John Wainwrig-ht and John Choat Esqr and to their heirs and 
assig-ns forever, they performing the conditions of the Grant, pro- 
vided the plat exceeds not the quantity of six miles square of land, 
and does not interfere with any former Grant. 
" In council, read and concurred. Consented to. 



J. Belcher." 



E. 12° 



/ Laid out in answer to petition of 

/^* John Wainvvright and John Choate, 

/^ Esq. for a township for some of the 

;-A^ inliabitants of Ipswich. 

/^ Surveyed by Jonas Houghton for 

/ Ipswich. 



The plat, as returned by Hoiigliton, is still to be found in 
the State archives, and is a mere outline, no streams or nat- 
ural features of the land being laid down. The township was 
first laid out of a rectangular form, two or three miles farther 
west, but was afterwards brought down, by running dotted 
lines "so as to adjoin to Townsend " which then compre- 
hended a part of what is now Mason, " and to be bounded 
on the south by the township laid out to Tileston and others," 
Dorchester Canada, now Ashby and Ashburnham. 

Unfortunately for our history, the Records of the Massachu- 
setts Proprietors have been lost ; so that all the details, as to 
the survey of the town and its first settlement, must be made 
out from gleanings among documents in the public offices and 
libraries. No continuous records are found previous to 1750. 
As the result of one of these researches, a most important pa- 
per for our'purpose was discovered in Ipswich, by Rev. Joseph 
B. Felt, the able historian of that town. It is a petition of 
the legal representatives of the grantees of the town; and 
from it we learn the natues of several of the original proprietors. 
Many of them were men well known for their standing, ability 
and energy, particularly well qualified for an enterprize of the 
kind. Their names appear in italics. 

To his Excellency Francis Bernard Esqr. and to the Honorable 
his Majesty's Council and to the Honorable House of Representa- 
tives in General Court assembled, May, 1767. 
4 



26 TITLES TO TITE LAND. 

The Petition of Sundry persons Grantees of the Toa\ti of New 
Ipswich lately so called, and the Legal representatives of the 
Grantees of s ' Town. 

Humhly Sheweth, That the Great and General Court or Assembly 
of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, did, in the month of Jany 
Anno Domini 1735, grant unto sixty of the Inhabitants of the Town 
of Ipswich a Township of the contents of six miles square Avhich 
was called New Ipswich ; that afterwards the said Township fell 
within the province of New Hampshire : that your Petitioners after 
having been at a very great and long continued Expence lost their 
several rights in said township and become Very great Sufferers, 
they having built a Meeting House, a saw mill. Bridges, &:c, besides 
Expending a great deal on their Several rights ; wherefore your Pe- 
titioners humbly pray that your Excellency and Honours would be 
pleased to take the premises into your consideration and Grant unto 
them an Equivelant in some of the ungranted lands of this Province, 
or make them such other compensation as to your wisdom shall 
seem meet ; and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray, 

^^- Signed, 

Samuel Wigglesworth, of Ipswich. ^ 

Nathaniel Rogers, for Rev. John Rogers. 

Nathaniel Rogers, in his own right. 

John Kinsman, for Liejit. Jaf?ies Burnham. 

Nehemiah Choate for Capt. Robert Choate. 

Abraham Knowlton for Capt. Knoivlto7i. 

Thomas Smith. 

Daniel Eveleth. 

John Berry for Thomas Berry, Esq: deceased. 

Andrew Burley for the estate oi Andrew Burlcy. 

John Smith. 

Richard Brown for the right of Jeremiah Pitts. 

William Broum. , 

Daniel Rogers for Richard Rogers, Esq. 

Thomas Dennis. 

Isaac Appleton. ♦ 

* The following notices of some of the proprietors may be interesting. 

Rev. Samuel Wigglesworth, graduated at Harv. Coll. 1707, was a physician a 
few years, and then settled in the ministry at Ipswich Hamlet, died 1768, fPt. 80. 

Rev. John Rogers, H. C. 1684, died 1745, at. 80. 

Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, II. C. 1721, died 177.5. 

Thomas Berry, graduated at Harv. Coll. 1712, was a physician, died 1756. 

Andrew Burley was a Justice of the Court of Sessions — a representative in 
1741-2, died 1753. His estate is noted at j£2.599. 

Andrew Burlev, his son, graduated at Harv. Coll. 1742, died 1788. 

William Brown, died 1801, aged 90. 

Rev. Daniel Rogers, graduated Harv. Coll. 1725 and settled at Littleton, 1732. 

Col. Thomas Dennis, died 1771. He left an estate of £1395. 

Isaac Appleton, died 1794, aged 92. 



PROVINCE BOUNDARY LINE. 27 

William Dodge for the right of Jos. Able. 

John Treadwell. 

Jeremiah Perkins. 

Thomas Norton. 

Francis Choate Jr. for Capt. Thomas Choate. 

Thomas Choate, Jr. 

Francis Choate for himself. 

Jonathan Cogswell for William Cogswell. 

Daniel Appleto7i, 

Heirs of Dan 



Elizabeth Appleton, 
John Walley, 
Elizabeth Walley, 
Mary Appleton, 



. , . , John Appleto?i, 

itl Apfileton, 5-^. .' , 

who owned •, Joh?i vVainivrignt, 

ihe five oiigi- t T'^^^j^n frow 
nal shares of ^ no?naS l^TOSS, 

[Nathaniel Wells. 



From this document we also learn something of the pro- 
ceedings of the grantees towards the settlement of the t(nvn. 
Scarcely, however, could they have entered in earnest upon 
the work, before the event occurred Avhich at length drew 
forth the above petition, and produced an almost entire sus- 
pension of the enterprise. The runnmg of the boundary line 
between Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1741, not only 
brought the township within the limits of the latter Province, 
but, according to Douglass' map, severed a triangular portion 
from the southeast section of the territory as located by the 
Massachusetts grant.* An extract from this map of Douglass, 
made in 1748, will show the position of the township in rela- 
tion to the Province line and to the neighboring townships then 
laid out. It is evidently very defective in relative distances, 
but will serve to show all that was known of the territory at 
that date. 

Thomas Norton, graduated Harv. Coll. 1725. He was a lawyer, and the pro- 
prietors' treasurer. 

John Treadwell, innholder, Ipswich. 

Capt. Thomas Choate lived in Chebacco parish, died 1745. 

Thomas and Francis Choate were sons of Capt. Thomas. Francis was a ruling 
Elder in Chebacco parish and died 1777, in his 77th year. 

Col. Daniel Appleton, died in 1762. 

Elizabeth Appleton, married Rev. John Walley, who died 1784. 

John Wainwright died 1739. 

* The only basis for conjecture as to the extent of this dismemberment is the 
fact that the southern boundary is not now parallel with the centre line of the old 
township. The distance between them at the eastern end is about seventeen rods 
less than at the western boundary. Hence we may infer that about that number 
of rods was cut off at the southeast corner ; though according to Douglass' map, 
it would appear to have been much more. 



28 



TITLES TO THE LAND. 



Menadnock 




\WitcIwset 



A. Province Land, uiiappropriateil. 

B. Lane's New Boston. 

C. To Concord, (Peterboro'.) 

1). Canada to Salem, (Lyndel)oro'.) 

E. Narraganset, No. 3, (Mount Vernon.) 

F. Narraganset, No. 5, (Bedford.) 

G. Canada to Rowley, (Rindge.) 

H. Grotou Grant, (Mason and Wilton.) 
I. liollis. 



J. Dunstable. 

K. Canada to Ipswich, (Wincliendon.) 

L. Canada to Dorchester, (Ashburnliain.) 

M. Townshend. 

N. Grolon. 

O. Lunenburg. 

P. Narraganset, No. 2, (Westminster.) 

Q. Leominster. 

R. Harvard. 



For the next four years every thing was in a state of un- 
certainty, as the rights of the parties were still contested, until 
the final decision in 1745 in favor of John Tuftoii Mason, 
when, of course, the old title from Massachusetts fell to the 



ground. 



NEW GRANT. 29 

Mason immediately sold his claim to twelve persons resident 
at Portsmouth and vicmity who were subsequently associated 
with others and were styled the " Masonian Proprietors." * 
These Proprietors pursued a liberal and conciliatory policy, 
and with some unimportant reservations, confirmed the grants 
made by Massachusetts, when requested by the grantees so to 
do; and thus, though under different auspices, every thing 
went on as if no change had occured, every man retaining 
the lots claimed by hhn, and all the improvements which 
might have been made upon them. The Ipswich proprietors, 
however, do not appear to have made this request ; on the 
contrary, they seem to have abandoned the township. Per- 
haps they had not made sufficient progress in its settlement to 
have justified such a request; or it may be that the war, 
which had just broken out, led them to feel that titles were 
of but little importance, in the uncertainty of the issue. 
At any rate, no immediate steps were taken to obtain a title 
to the township. At length a few of the former Ipswich pro- 
prietors, in conjunction with the resident settlers, and several 
enterprising men from Hollis, Littleton, Westford, Concord 
and other towns, who purposed to become settlers, thirty in 
all, associated for this purpose. 

The first record of their doings is found after they had pro- 
ceeded so far that a meeting of the petitioners, under the style of 
" Proprietors of the township of New Ipswich," was "appointed 
by Joseph Blanchard, Esq., agent to the claimers of the patent 
under John Tufton Mason, who are Grantors of said town- 
ship/' at the house of Capt. Joseph French, in Dunstable, April 
16, 1749. At this meeting, all the preliminaries seem to have 

The names of the proprietors, at the time the grant of this town was made, 
twenty-one in number, representing eighteen shares, are as follows ; and seve- 
ral of the neighboring townships bear their names : 

Col. Theodore Atkinson, Jotham Odiorne, 

Thomas Packer, Daniel Peirce, 

Mark Hunking Wentworth, Mary Moor, 

John Moftatt, John Tufton Mason, 

George Jaffrey, John Tomlinson, 

John Rindge, Matthew Livermore, 

John Wentworth, William Parker, 

Joshua Pierce, Thomas Wallingford, 

Joseph Blanchard, Samuel Solley, 

Nathaniel Meserve, Clement March. 

Richard Wibird, 



30 TITLES TO THE LAND. 

been settled; arrangements were made for laying out and 
coupling the lots for an equitable distribution ; and the sum of 
£210 old tenor, (about ^75,) was voted to Col. Blanchard, 
" for his service and expense in procuring said township and 
granting out the same." At a meeting of the Masonian pro- 
prietors, June 16, 1749, the doings of Col. Blanchard were 
confirmed ; and he was authorized to make the grant. It was 
accordingly drawn up and signed April 17, 1750. 

(the masonian charter.) 
PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Pursuant to the power and authority granted and vested in me 
by the proprietors of lands purchased of John Tufton Mason, Esqr. 
in said Province, by their Vote and passed at their Meeting at Ports- 
mouth, in said province, on the 16th day of June, 1749, I do by 
these presents, give and grant unto Reuben Kidder, Archibald 
White, Jonas Woolson, Habijah Foster, John Brown, Benj. Hoar, 
jr. Timothy Heald, Joseph Kidder, Joseph Bullard, Ebenezer BuUard, 
Joseph Stevens, Henry Pudney, John Chandler, all of a place called 
New Ipswich, Hannah Dunsmore, Peter Powers, Mr. Daniel Emer- 
son, David Nevins, all of Hollis, Zaccheus Lovewell, Joseph French, 
both of Dunstable, and all in the province of New Hampshire, Jon- 
athan Hubbard, and John Stevens of Townsend, Isaac Appleton, 
Thomas Adams, Robert Choate, Thomas Dennis all of Ipswich, An- 
drew Spaulding of Westford, Isaac Patch of Groton, William Peters 
of Medfield, John Marsh of Mendura and Benj. Hoar of Littleton, to 
their heirs and assigns on the terms, conditions and limitations and 
in the respective proportions here after expressed, that tract of Land 
or township lying in the Province of New Hampshire aforesaid, ex- 
tending six miles in length and five miles in breadth, bounded as 
follows : beginning at the line between the Province of N. H. and 
the Province of Massachusetts bay at the S. W. corner of the 
Township called No. One, (now Mason) thence north SO degrees 
west six miles to y^ southeast corner of the township called South 
Monadnock, (or Monadnock No. One) from thence North by the 
Needle five Miles to the Northeast corner of s'* South Monadnock 
(Rindge), from thence South 80° east by the line of Peterboro' Slip, 
(now Sharon and Temple) six miles to the Northwest corner of No. 
One, and from thence south five miles to the bounds first mentioned. 

To have and to hold to them, their heirs and assigns, excepting 
as aforesaid, and on the following terms and conditions, with the 
reservations aforsaid the lots already laid out, and the several propor- 
tions of common land yet to be divided to each one as followeth. 

[Here follows the allotineiit, which will be giveu iu a table hereafter.] 



MASONIAN CHARTER. 31 

That is to say, that eighteen full and equal shares in said town 
in the following manner, viz. : thirty-six lots of eighty acres each, 
already laid out, and eighteen shares in the after divisions to be 
drawn for in some equitable manner ; that is to say, two lots of 
seventy acres each, to be reserved for the use of the grantors, their 
heirs and assigns forever, and the like number of lots and quantity 
of land for each share of each grantee, holding in the after divi- 
sions; and the remainder besides what is before granted to be to the 
use of the grantees ; that the divisions of the two seventy acre lots 
for each share be laid out and equitably coupled together and drawn 
in some open fair manner, at or before the last day of August, 
1751, and that the said eighteen shares reserved aforesaid for the 
grantors, be exonerated, acquited and fully exempted from paying 
any charges towards making a settlement and not held to the con- 
ditions of the other shares respecting a settlement, nor liable to any 
tax, assessment or charge, until improved by the owners or some 
one holding under thein respectively.'' 

" That the Grantees at their own expense, make settlement, and be 
at the charge of dividing the whole of the lands, clearing or making 
feasable roads, and that all the lots in toA\Ti be liable to have all 
necessary roads laid out through them as there shall be occasion, 
free from charge ; that the grantees, according to the number of 
their shares or lots, hereinafter named, make settlement in the fol- 
lowing manner, viz. : that within two years from this date, on each 
settling lot or share there be three acres of land cleared and fitted 
for mowing or ploughing, and have a comfortable dwelling house, 
the room to be at least sixteen feet square, and a family or some 
person to dwell in each house, and that within five years from this 
date there be nine acres more cleared, enclosed or fitted for mowing 
or tillage on some lot belonging to each settling right aforesaid. 
That the grantees to make settlement, and the number of each be 
as followeth, (viz.) Reuben Kidder to make settlement on three 
shares or rights ; Archibald White, Jonas Woolson, Habijah Foster, 
John Brown, on one share each ; Benjamin Hoar, jr. on two shares ; ' 
Timothy Heald, Joseph Kidder, Joseph Bullard, Ebenezer Bullard, 
Joseph Stevens, Henry Pudney, John Chandler, one share each ; 
Hannah Densmore, two shares ; Peter Powers, David Nevins, Jon- 
athan Hubbard, John Stevens, each one share ; Isaac Appleton, six; 
Thomas Adams, five ; Robert Choate and William Brown, one each ; 
Nathaniel Smith, two ; Francis Choate, Thomas Dennis, Andrew 
Spaulding, Isaac Patch, William Peters, John Marsh, one each ; 
and Benjamin Hoar, two, — in manner aforesaid, that each of the 
grantees at the executing of this instrument, pay fourteen pounds ; 
cash, old tenor, to pay the charges arisen and arising in said town- 
ship, to be deposited in the hands of some person chose by them for 
that purpose ; also that a convenient meeting house be built in said 
township, within seven years from this date, as near the centre of 
said township, and at such place, as the major part of said grantors 



32 TITLES TO THE LAND. 

and grantees shall determine by vote, in proprietor's meetins;, called 
for that purpose ; and that ten acres of land shall be reserved there 
for public use ; and that said grantees shall within seven years settle 
a learned and orthodox minister in said township, and for whom 
suitable provision shall be made. 

That all white pine trees fit for his Majesty's use for masting his 
Royal navy, growing on said land be and hereby is granted to his 
Majesty, his heirs and successors forever.' [Here follow two pages 
describing the proceedings to be taken in case any of the grantees 
neglect to perform their contract, so as " utterly to amove, oust and 
expel the grantors, provided there be no Indian wars within any 
of the terms and limitations of time aforesaid," in which case the 
same term was to be allowed " after such impediment shall be re- 
moved ; " and also describing the covenant given by the proprietors 
to defend the title.] This is executed at Dunstable, the 17th day 
of April, 1750. 

(Signed,) Joseph Blanchard. 

After some trifling alteration, respecting the location of a 
meeting house, the charter was formally accepted, Dec. 19, 
1753 ; and it was " Voted, that we do hereby accept said title, 
and for ourselves, our heirs and assigns, do acknowledge that 
we hold said lands under said titles, conditions and limita- 
tions, with the reservations in the said charter mentioned. 
[P. R. 193.] 

The township bore the same name, and purported to be the 
same, as that granted by Massachusetts ; but the tract of land 
designated was, in reality, essentially different, and accorded 
more nearly with that first laid out by Houghton, (p. 25.) 
Originally, it was a much more eligible township than now. It 
was diamond shaped, six miles on each side, the long diagonal 
running northeast and southwest. In fact it comprised nearly 
all the valley, as we see it enclosed within the mountains, ex- 
cluding some of the present township west of the mountains, 
and that also on the eastern slope of the hills towards Town- 
send and Mason ; while it took in the best portion of Temple 
on the north, and the beautiful and important region of Mason 
Village at the northeast, as may be seen on the town map. 
The Masonian Proprietors altered the direction of the eastern 
boundary line so as to run west of north, thus cutting off 
Mason Village, and taking in a tract of about 966 acres 



MUTILATIONS OF THE TOWN. 33 

at the sovitheast, which then belonged to Townsend. A strip 
a mile wide was taken from its northern side, and the western 
line made nearly parallel to the eastern boundary. It is now 
diamond-shaped in the contrary direction, that is, pointing 
from southeast to northwest. 

The Masonian Proprietors, in accordance with their usual 
custom of confirming and reissuing the grants of the old Mas- 
sachusetts townships, as they stood, doubtless intended to pre- 
serve this township as nearly the same, in extent and location, 
as the new Province line would allow. They therefore au- 
thorize Joseph Blanchard, Esq. to grant several towns to the 
east of this, and "also the lands lying between Peterborough 
on the North and said towns on the East, so far South as to 
leave a town on square lines, joining the Province line, of six 
miles square, in and adjoining to New Ipswich." When there- 
fore we consider his non-compliance with these conditions, 
and the injurious change made in this township, both by cur- 
tailment of its territory and change of its location, we cannot 
but surmise some fraud or injustice on the part of Col. Blan- 
chard, as well as a strange disregard to their rights and inter- 
est on the part of the grantees. We do not learn, however, 
of any misgivings at that time. On the contrary, both the 
contracting parties seem to have been quite satisfied ; as is 
evinced on the part of the Masonian Proprietors by their giv- 
ing Col. Blanchard a right in the township with themselves ; 
and on the part of the grantees by the liberal compensation 
they voted for his services. 

The mutilations of the old township did not end here. It 
was found, on running the township lines, that the northern 
boundary encroached upon what was then called Peterborough 
Slip or Striptown, now a part of Sharon and Temple, which 
caused no little perplexity and vexation through a long series of 
years. The old township had been six miles from north to 
south ; and lots had been laid out extending two miles on each 
side of the centre line. As the new township was only five 
miles in this direction, one mile having been taken off from the 
northern border, the northern ends of these lots, with the 
addition of a strip corresponding to what had been severed 
5 



34 TITLES TO THE LAND. 

from the south by the Province line, should have been the 
northern boundary of the town. It was accordingly so plan- 
ned on paper, with a narrow triangular strip about thirty-four 
rods wide at its eastern and widest part, running along the 
whole north side of the town, as may be seen by reference 
to the map. But by the Masonian charter, a certain white 
pine tree marked the contiguous corners of the four towns, 
now called Mason, Wilton, Temple and New Ipswich. This 
white pine tree, instead of being situated beyond, proved to be 
about forty-eight rods south of the north end of the afore- 
said lots; and hence the difficulty. 

The attention of the Proprietors seems to have been soon 
called to this interference of the boundary, and notwithstand- 
ing their prior and reserved territorial right over any township 
on the northern border (p. 33), they seem to have acquiesced 
in the claims of their neighbors ; and at their meeting in Octo- 
ber, 17.53, they propose to convey to Reuben Kidder and Ben- 
jamin Hoar all the common lands that may be left, after all 
the rights are completed, for £500 lawful, "conditioned to 
indemnifie said proprietee and every person in it, from any 
harm or damage that they might other ways sustain by Reson 
of the north Bounds of said Township runing in to Peterbo- 
rough Strip or Striptown, so that none of said Proprietors 
shall ever be molested by the said line." [P. R. 192.] 

The next year, however, for reasons unknown, the Propri- 
etors arranged with Messrs. Kidder & Hoar to relinquish this 
contract; and after expressing their apprehension that such 
an infringement existed, they agree to indemnify all those 
whose farms should be injured thereby ; and chose a com- 
mittee to see if the strip in question could be procured.* 

It would seem that an appeal was first made to the Maso- 

* " Whereas we are something apprehensive that some of the lots in New Ips- 
wich or sum that was laid out to some of the Grantees of s'i Township are 
Infringed upon, by the line of Peterborough Strip or Strip Town so called ; there- 
fore. Voted that wheare it shall so happen, that this Proprietee will secure and 
Defend s'' Grantee from any Troble or Damage he shall theirby sustain, either 
by purchasing s<J land for them, or some other way, equal to what Damage he or 
they shall receive or sustain." 

" Voted to choose three men as a Committee for to procure, if they can, a 
Strip of Land lying on the north side of our township which Peterborough Strip 
infringes upon. [P. R. p. 196, 199.] 



STRIPTOWN INFRINGEMENT. 35 

nian Proprietors, through Col. Blanchard their agent, (P. R. 
205-206) ; but it is evident that no rehef was tendered from 
that quarter. At a meeting, Nov. 26, 1754, a committee was 
chosen and " directed forthwith to notifie the proprietors of 
Peterborough Shp, so called, for to settle the line between 
them and us ; to settle the same with them when they shall 
appoint; and on their neglect, you are directed to run the line 
exactly from the northwest corner of this township to the 
northwest corner of the township of Number One." (P. R. 
212-13.] This was evidently done ; but whether by joint or 
separate action, does not appear. 

Various attempts were then made to ascertain the loss which 
the owners of the northern range of lots had thus sustained ; 
and various plans were from time to time proposed, to satisfy 
them for their loss. At one time, it was agreed to give an 
equivalent from the common and unappropriated lands of the 
town. [P. R. 250, Aug. 1759.] * A few of the sufferers 
acceded to this plan; but it seems not to have been satis- 
factory to all ; and, subsequently, it was agreed to allow a cer- 
tain sum per acre, in money, the valuation varying in differ- 
ent lots, from 20 to 55 shillings, silver, per acre [P. R. 266.], 
the whole sum amounting to £435.175., silver, old tenor. 

In 1771, still another adjustment became necessary, since it 
was found that some had received more, and some less, than 
they were entitled to. It was then agreed that each one should 
have liberty to measure the land cut off, and if more had been 
cut off than had been estimated, it should be paid for " at the 
same rate for each acre as said Proprietors voted formerly " ; 
and, on the other hand, the Proprietors should be refunded 
at the same rate, if too much had been paid. The re- 
sult was, that an additional sum of £53 lawful was found 
necessary to meet the losses sustained ; and an appeal was 
made to the General Court to enable them to collect the assess- 
ments for this purpose, and " the charges that shall arise by 
effecting the matter to a final determination, as his Excellence 

* "Voted that each SufTerer by the Infringement of Striptown Line shall have 
Liberty to Pitch on Lands in y'' coman of this Township for his Satisfaction and 
shall enter his Pitch to the Props. Clark and shall have his Lands made up out of 
the Lands he or they Pitch upon, as they enter their Pitch to the Props. Clark," 
&c. [P. R. 250.] ; and the next year, such an allotment was made, [P. R. 254.] 



36 TITLES TO THE LAND. 

and Honors shall direct." This is the last item on the Pro- 
prietors' Records, and is dated Dec. 24, 1772, and seems, in- 
deed, to have been the only subject which called the Proprie- 
tors together for several years previous to the termination of 
their Records.* 

Though this vexed question entered so largely into the 
deliberations of the early settlers, it would not have been of 
sufficient interest to occupy the space here given it, were it 
not a mystery, to the owners of the northern range of farms, 
how it happens that a part of their lots are in this town, and 
a part in Temple ; most of the owners at that time having 
purchased back again the portions falling into Temple, so as to 
have complete 80 acre lots. From Lot No. 24, twenty-three 
acres were taken, and lie in Temple ; from No. 28, twenty- 
two acres, and so on, one acre less for each succeeding lot 
westward ; so that from the northeast corner lot (the Ministry 
lot. No. 20), had it been a full lot, twenty-four acres would 
have been taken. The length of the lot being one hundred 
and sixty rods, we have 80 acres : 160 rods : : 24 acres : 48 
rods. Adding to this, the eastern side of Lot 188, which 
extended along the border of Wilton thirty-four rods still 
farther north of these lots, and Ave have the present northeast 
corner of the township now placed eighty-two rods farther 
south than it was laid down in the Masonian plan. About 
five hundred acres, in all, were thus cut off from the town. 
As to the angular strip cut off from the old township by the 
running of the Province line in 1741, as represented on Doug- 
lass' Map, we have already adverted to it. It is not improb- 
able, indeed, as has been already hinted (p. 33), that it cor- 
responded to the angular strip. Lot 188, along the northern 
margin of the Masonian plan ; as may be readily understood 
by reference to the town map. 

In conserpience of all these changes, the plotting of the farm 
lots is very irregular, there being no less than five different 

* It is apparent, however, that their operations, even on this endless suhject, 
did not terminate here ; for in the Town Record nnder date of June 30, 1773, is 
the following : " Voted to chuse a man to object against the Proprietors' petition 
preferred to the General (^ourt for a tax on the land in this town to pay those 
proprietors who sutiered by not having their Rights compleat." [T. R. 107.] 



ACT OF INCORPORATION. 37 

schemes employed in covering the whole ground ; and it is a 
singular fact, that there is not one square or right-angled 
lot in the town, all of them being diamond-shaped in different 
proportions, or wedge-shaped. Hence great perplexity has 
arisen in surveying the farm lines, the divergence of the angles, 
as well as their position, being often widely different in two 
adjacent farms. 

At a meeting of the Proprietors, July 5, 1762, it was "Voted, 
to apply to the General Court to git the Place called New Ips- 
wich Incorporated." 

"Voted to imploy Capt. Reuben Kidder to go down to Court 
to get the Incorporation effected, and that the said Kidder 
shall proceed in the affair as he shall think best, and that the 
necessary charges shall be paid by the Propriety." [P.R. 270.] 

The duty was immediately performed, so that an Act of 
Incorporation was obtained, bearing date Sep. 9, 1762 ; and 
henceforward the business of the town was transacted by the 
resident citizens, directly, or through their officers, instead of 
by th^ Proprietors of the Land ; and the first town meetmg 
was held on the thirteenth of the same month. 

"PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

" Georg-e the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, 
and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c. ; To all to whom 
these presents shall come — Greeting : 

" Whereas our loyal subjects. Inhabitants of a tract of Land 
within the Province of Newhampshire, known by the name of New 
Ipswich, lying on the branches of the Souhegan river, between No. 1 
and Rowley Canada (so called), have humbly petitioned and re- 
quested that they may be erected and incorporated into a Township 
and infranchised with the same power and privileges which other 
Towns within our said Province have and enjoy ; and it appearing 
unto us to be conducive to the general good of our said Province, as 
well as of the Inhabitants in particular, by maintaining good order 
and incouraging the culture of the land, that the same should be 
done ; — Know ye therefore, that We, of our special grace, certain 
knowledge, and for the encouragement and promoting the good pur- 
poses and ends aforesaid, — by and with the advice of our truly and 
well-beloved Benning Wentworth, Esqr., our Governour and Com- 
mander in Chief, and of our Council for said Province of New 
Hampshire, — have enacted and ordained, and by these Presents, 
for us, our heirs and successors, do will and ordain, that the Inhab- 



38 TITLES TO THE LAND. 

itants of the tract of Land aforesaid, and others who shall inhabit 
and improve thereon hereafter, the same being butted and bounded 
as follows, viz. : Beginning- at a white pine tree, being the south- 
west corner of the Town of Wilton ; thence running west six miles ; 
thence running south to the Province line five miles ; thence six 
miles east upon the Province line ; thence running north five miles 
to the bounds first mentioned, — Be, and hereby are declared and or- 
dained to be a Town Corporate, and are hereby erected and incorpo- 
rated into a body politick and corporate, to have continuance until 
the first day of January, 1766, by the name of Ipswich, with all the 
powers and authorities, privileges, immunities and franchises which 
any other Towns in said Province by law have and enjoy, to said 
Inhabitants, or who shall hereafter inhabit, their successors for said 
Town. Always reserving to us, our heirs and successors, all White 
Pine Trees that are or shall be found growing on the said tract of 
Land fit for the use of our Navy. Reserving also to us, our heirs 
and successors, the power and right of dividing said Town when it 
shall appear necessary and convenient for the inhabitants thereof. 

Provided, nevertheless, and it is hereby declared, that this Char- 
ter and Grant is not intended, and shall not in any manner be con- 
strued to extend to or affect the private property of the soil within 
the limits aforesaid. And as the several Towns within our said 
Province are by laws thereof enabled and authorized to assemble, 
and by the majority of the voters present to choose all such officers 
and transact such affairs as in Laws are declared, we do by these 
Presents nominate and appoint Reuben Kidder, Esqr. to call the 
first meeting of said Inhabitants, to be held within said Town, at 
any time within forty days from the date hereof, giving legal notice 
of the time and design of holding such meeting ; after which, the 
Annual meeting of said Town shall be held for the choosing of 
said officers and the purposes aforesaid, on the second Monday in 
March annually. 

In Testimony whereof, we have caused the Seal of our said Pro- 
vince to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Benning Wentworth, 
Esqr. our Governour, and Commander in Chief of our said 
Province, the ninth day of September, in the second year of 
our Reign, Anno Domini 1762. 

Benning Wentworth. 
By His Excellency's command, by advice of Council. 
Theodore Atkinson. 

In this Act of Incorporation the town is styled "Ipswich." 
It was limited to less than four years, and was to expire Jan- 
uary 1, 1766. By a vote of the town it was ordered that a 
renewal of the Act of Incorporation should not be applied for, 
until the first should have expired. 



DIMENSIONS OF THE TOWN. 39 

There is no evidence, from the Records, that any appUca- 
tion was subsequently made. The new Act bears date Mar. 
6, 1766 ; though it would seem that it was not recorded and 
transmitted till just a year afterwards. In the intervening 
time, between the expiration of the old and the reception of 
the new Charter, a period of fifteen months, there was a com- 
plete interregnum in the exercise of municipal powers. Not 
a record appears on the Town books, and no tax was levied 
or collected ; so that the next year it was necessary to assess 
a two-years' minister's rate. The year, however, seems to 
have been passed in peace and prosperity. 

The second Act is in precisely the same terms as the first, 
excepting that the town is styled " New Ipswich," and the 
term of duration is unlimited. In these Acts, as well as in 
the Masonian Grant, the township is described as being six 
miles long and five miles wide, containing thirty square miles. 
These could never have been the true dimensions, since, after 
all the curtailments, the township remains about six and a 
quarter miles in length and five and a quarter in breadth. 
And it may also be remarked, that, in no two perambulations, 
have the length or direction of the boundary lines been re- 
ported the same ; the latter diflerence, however, may be ac- 
counted for by not making the proper allowance for the 
periodical variation of the needle. 

According to the notes of the last perambulation (18.50) the 
boundaries are as follow : From the N. W. corner of Ashby 
8° 30' E. to the S. E. corner of N. I. ; from the S. W. corner of 
N. I. about E, to the corner of Ashby and Ashburnham ; from 
the S. W. corner of N. I. and the S. E. corner of Rindge north 
1° 5' E. 1694 rods, to a stake ; thence S. 80° 10' E. 690 rods 
between N. I. and Sharon ; thence between Temple and N. I. 
S. 79° 30' E. 1253 rods to a stake ; between Mason and N. I.,* 
beginning at the N. E. corner of N. I. and the N. W. corner of 
Mason at a stake, thence S. 30° W. 1687 rods 10 links. 



CHAPTER III. 

EARLIEST CIVIL HISTORY, 



the wilderness ; early scouting-parties ; plotting of the 
town; improvements by the Massachusetts grantees; first 

SETTLERS ABIJAH FOSTER; JONAS WOOLSON; MOSES TUCKER; 

BENJAMIN HOAR, ETC.; TITLE BECOMES VOID ; INDIAN WAR; DE- 
SERTION OF THE TOWN ; CAPTIVITY OF CAPT. FITCH ; WORKS OF 
defence; RECAPITULATION. 

Very soon after the first colonists of New England arrived, 
settlers penetrated far up the beautiful valleys of the Connec- 
ticut and the Merrimac, attracted by the fertile meadows, and 
by the comparative ease with which they could be brought 
under cultivation ; while a large tract of country much nearer 
the seaboard remained unoccupied. Lancaster, Groton, and 
Dunstable, after having been planted for nearly a century, 
remained on the very outskirts of civilization ; while, at the 
distance of only twenty or thirty miles inland, not the least 
trace of the white man was to be found. The forests around 
the Monadnock and Watatic and the sources of the Souhegan 
remained in as primitive a condition as Avhen the Pilgrim 
Fathers first landed at Plymouth. The foot of the white man 
had never traversed its solitudes, unless, perchance, some of 
the scouting-parties from Dunstable and Lancaster to the Wa- 
tatic and Monadnock mountains, of which there are records 
'as far back as 1723, may have passed this way.* Nor does 

* March, 172.3. There is a Jo':rnal of " a scout to Mulipas River (Malpus 
Brook in Lunenburg), Turkey Hills, Squannicook River and head of Souhegaii 
River, Watatic Hills," &c. 

Feb. 24, 1724. "We went from Groton to Turkey Hills, thence to the Great 
Hills, thence on to Watatic Ponds and then to Watatic Hills — thence to Monom- 
nock Ponds and on to Pack Monadnocks and so to Souhegan River, and to Squa- 
nakook," &c. Jabez f\\iRBANKs. 

July 31, 1725. "We marched twelve miles, and I with fourteen men campt 



ABORIGINES. 41 

it appear that the red man ever occupied the territory com- 
prised in this township as a permanent residence, no vestiges 
of his presence having been at any time discovered. Doubt- 
less he might have occasionally roamed this way in his hunt- 
ing excursions ; and tradition says, tliat he sometimes visited 
the early settlers with his baskets and brooms. A grandson 
of Mrs. Emerson, who lived near the foot of Watatic, says he 
has heard her relate the following incident: "One day, in 
summer, a party of Indians were seen approaching the house. 
The family, stricken with terror, dispersed, and concealed 
themselves as best they could. One fled to the cellar, and 
being concealed in a dark corner, saw them come into the 
cellar, go to the pans of milk, skim ofl" the cream with their 
hands and suck it up. After liaving pilfered the house of such 
articles as pleased them, they retired to the woods, to the great 
relief of the family." The only Indian relic which has ever 
been mentioned, Avas a bit of metal found in a field near 
Ashby, supposed to have been an arrow-head ; and if so, must 
have been obtained of the French at a modern period. 

As we have already seen, this town, together with several 
neighboring townships, were granted by Massachusetts in 
1736-7. Dorchester Canada, including Ashburnham and part 
of Ashby, had been granted at the same session, and its posi- 
tion defined previous to the locating of this township. Town- 
send, which then embraced a very large territory, including 
the remainder of Ashby, Mason, and part of New Ipswich, 

upon the top of Wannadnack mountain and discovered 26 pounds (ponds). Saw 
Pigwackett lying one point from said mpnntain, and Cusagee (Kearsarge) moun- 
tain and VV^innepeseockey lying jiorlheast from said Wannadnack. The same 
day we found several old signes which the Indians had made the last year, and 
where they campt when they killed the people of Rutland, as we imagine. 

Aug. 1. " We marched from the west side of Wenadnack and corsed three 
stremes that run into Contocook, and then campt and sent out our scouts, and 
found two wigwams made in June or July as we suppose, and found 16 of there 
spitts which they rost there meat with, all in said wigwams, and one of our scouts 
went so far he could not return tiie same night." — Letter of Samvcl Willard. 

July 2.5, 1725. These are to inform you that this day being wide of Watchu- 
sett and Monadnock mountains upon our march towards Penishiwasset with 47 
able bodied men, four of our men being sick and not able to travel, who I liave 
sent into Lancaster with Joshua Parker, a well man, to take carp of them. I do 
not think to be in any town this .35 davs unless we get some Indians. Yesterday 
I being upon the scout heard a gun which T supposed to be an Indian gun — have 
sent out scouts three several ways this day. 

Yours to serve, Samuel Willard. 

6 



42 EARLIEST CIVIL HISTORY. 

was the only town in the vicinity which had made any pro- 
gress in settlement. Immediately, however, the Proprietors 
commenced the necessary steps to comply with the stipulations 
of the grant, and thereby secure the township. It is clear 
that the town was known, by its name, and its boundaries 
settled and understood, as early as 1738, and probably in 
1737.* As early as this, also, a portion of the township was 
laid out into lots. This was done by laying out a road from 
east to west, parallel to the north and south lines of the town, 
at what was doubtless regarded as the central line, in that 
direction. Then, four ranges of sixteen lots on either side of 
this road, making in all 128 lots. Each lot was diamond- 
shaped, about 160 rods in length and 80 rods in width, that is, 
about half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, and com- 
prised about 80 acres, covering in all an area four miles long 
and four miles broad. Roads were laid out in straight lines 
across the ends of all the lots, and also north and south be- 
tween every series of four lots. None of these roads, except a 
small portion of the central one, Avere ever used ; but were 
afterwards incorporated with the lots on which they bordered, 
or were assigned to those who had " their land cut by reason 
of a road or roads going acrost their lott or lotts.-' [P. R. 209.] 
In their petition for redress, which we have given at p. 26, 
the Grantees state that they "built a meeting-house, saw-mill, 
bridges, &c., besides expending a great deal on their several 
rights." f The meeting-house is believed never to have been 
used as a place of worship ; and the saw-mill, if ever put in 

* In December, 1738, a grant of land was made to Jeffrey Bedgood, mariner, 
of Boston, " lying adjoining on a townsiiip called New Ipswich," beginning at 
the northwest corner, &c. Mass. Archives, vol. 93, fol. 93, 94. In November, 
1738, a grant was made to Robert Auchmuty, of land adjoining New Ipswich 
north line, &c. Mass. Archives, vol. 46, fol. 97, 98. 

t In confirmation of this, we have the following notice from a Boston newspa- 
per. " Whereas, on the 18th of June, 1739, the proprietors of the township 
called New Ipswich, at their meeting, granted the sum of five pounds to be raised 
on each original right, to bring forward the settlement of said township, these are 
therefore to notify those delinquent proprietors that have not paid said tax, that 
they pay the same to Mr. Thomas Norton, the proprietors' treasurer, on or before 
the 21st December next, or their rights are to be sold by us the subscribers ac- 
cording to the Province law, at the house of Mr. John Tredwell, innholder, in 
Ipswich, on the day aforesaid. Edward Evkleth, ^ 

John Boardman, > Committee. 

October 29, 1741." Isaac Appleton, ) 



FIRST RESIDENT SETTLERS. 43 

operation, was used but for a very short time. The principal 
bridge was over the Souhegan, on what was called the " coun- 
try road," above the factory villages. Farther than this we 
have no specific account of what was done by the Massachu- 
setts Proprietors. That other roads had also been laid out, 
Ave infer from the fact that at the first meeting of the Mason- 
ian grantees an appropriation was made to " repair the 
highways." The persons engaged in these preliminary oper- 
ations apparently spent the summers of 1737 and 1738 on the 
ground, returning again to the old settlements in the winter. 
The name of the first permanent resident, with his family, 
has been determined, so as to leave no question on that point ; 
but the precise date of his advent is less positively settled. 
From extensive researches into the history of his family, and 
from other collateral circumstances, we have been able to ar- 
rive at a conclusion which admits of but very little controversy. 
y > y with his wife, and daughter 

(X^ja^ jcJ/toA^ ^^^^T, then one year old, came 
/ / ' from old Ipswich some time 

during the summer of 173S, and became the pioneer settler in 
this place. His wife was the first woman in town, and his 
son Ebenezer was the first male child born in town. He first 
located himself on the lot in the centre village, now chiefly 
occupied by .Joseph Barrett, Esq. (N. D. 33), and built his log- 
house a little to the north of the house owned and long occu- 
pied by Mr. David Hills, just in the rear of the present Bank 
building. Traces of the cellar were very recently to be seen. 
About the year 1750, he sold this to Joseph Bates, and removed 
to the lot now occupied by Joseph Davis, (N. D. 45). This 
he sold to Thomas Fletcher, and we find him commencing a 
third clearing on the Caleb Campbell farm (S. D. IX : 2) as 
early as 1755. Having thus done good service in the settle- 
ment of the town, he, with his son Ebenezer, entered the ar- 
my ; and both of them died in the service (of small-pox) near 
Crown Point, in 1759. Thus, this town had a native-born 
citizen old enough to serve as a soldier in the old French 
War. 

Tradition says that Mr. Foster's family was the only one 
permanently settled, until they were reinforced by the arrival 



44 EARLIEST CIVIL HISTORY. 

of Jonas Woolson * and his wife. He settled on the farm 
on the hill, east of the river, now owned by James Spaulding, 
(S. D. II : 4.) The present proprietor, in making repairs 
upon the old part of the house, built one hundred years ago, 
recently discovered the foundations of a former dwelling, with 
a large flat hearth-stone for a fire-place, and ashes a foot 
deep around it, which must have been in use one hundred 
and ten years ago. He also found accounts, Avhich had been 
registered with chalk or charcoal on the timbers more than a 
hundred years ago. 

About the same time, came Benjamin Hoar and Moses 
Tucker, Mr. Hoar was from Littleton, and came from Town- 
send by marked trees, before any path had been cleared. He 
settled on the lot below Woolson, near the river (S. D. V : 2), 
near where the first bridge was built, and still continues. He 
was a blacksmith, and also kept a public house, and was a 
very useful citizen. He told his grandson, [William H, Pren- 
tice, Esq. of Boston,] now living, that he was the third settler, 
and his wife the second woman in town. Captain Tucker 
settled on the west side of the river, cornering on Mr. Hoar 
(S. D. VI : 1), and his house stood on the side of the hill near 
the corner where the roads going to the river divide ; the farm 
long owned and occupied by Judge Champney. He also 
subsequently owned, and probably occupied, a farm on the 
Town Hill, on the eastern line of the town (S. D. II : 1), as 
we learn from the record of the laying out of a road to Mason 
line in 17G5, (T. R. p. IS,) — "going on said Chandler's land . . . 
to the corner of his lott, then on the north end of his other lot 
to Capt. Moses Tucker's end line of his lott to the town line." 
&c. Along this old ''country road" then, on either side of the 
river, was the first neighborhood gathered. 

The BuUards, Ebenezer and John, next followed, and set- 
tled on the Town Hill, (S. D. 1:2.) In the records of the 
town of Groton, is recorded the marriage of Joseph Stevens, of 
New Ipswich, to Ehzabeth Sawtell, Nov. 10, 1743, showing 
that he too was at that time a resident in the town. He 
settled on the Wilson Hill, (N. D. 35.) Some of the Adamses 

* He married Susannah Wallis, of Townsend, June 23, 1742. 



INDIAN ALARMS. 45 

and other young men, both married and single, came in ; so 
that in 1745 there were a dozen or more inhabited houses in 
the town. 

This, to be sure, was not making any great advance to- 
wards a settlement- — far less than the terms of the grant 
required. The inherent dilficulties in effecting a new settle- 
ment are always great, especially when remote from others. 
But in this instance, before the five years probation allowed 
them for settling their lots had expired, the energy of the pro- 
prietors had been paralyzed by the running of the Province 
line in 1741, and by the consequent loss of their rights under 
the Massachusetts grant ; and those few settlers who perse- 
vered in clearing and occupying their lands, must have done 
so under the discouraging consciousness that they held them 
by no valid titles. 

But a still more serious obstacle soon interposed, which for 
a time entirely suspended further operations. This was the 
breaking out of the French and Indian war, in 1744, which 
spread consternation throughout all the feebler settlements, as 
well as in the older country towns. The Indians soon made 
descents from Canada, spreading terror and devastation as 
they went, and the principal towns to the north and west 
were attacked. The inhabitants of the neighboring towns 
either received garrisons for their defence, or tied to stronger 
places for refuge. The settlers here, however, seem to have 
maintained their ground, until an actual incursion upon our 
very borders. In the summer of 1748, a descent of a body of 
Indians, about eighty in number, was made upon the settle- 
ment of Mr. John Fitch, which was located in what was then 
Lmienburg, and near the south part of the present town of 
Ashby. He with his wife and five children and three soldiers 
occupied a garrisoned house. They were attacked one morn- 
ing when two of the soldiers happened to be absent, one of 
whom was killed in attempting to return. After a gallant de- 
fence, and the loss of the soldier with him, he surrendered, 
and with his wife and children was carried to Canada.* 

* As this event occurred so immediately in the vicinity, and had so intimate a 
connection with the early fortunes of the town ; and as it has been narrated 
under different forms and different dates, it seems not improper to sketch the par- 



46 EARLIEST CIVIL HISTORY. 

There was a block-house in Townsend, at the foot of the hill 
above the West Village, which still bears the name of Battery 
Hill, on the south road, not far from the southeast corner of 
New Ipswich. To this place the inhabitants now fled for 
protection, with their families and valuables, with one ex- 
ception. Captain Tucker boldly resolved to remain and 
make such defence as he could, or otherwise take his fate ; 



ticulars of the occurrence in full, as a careful investigation gives us assurance 
they actually took place. 

Mr. Fitch, who occupied with his family a frontier position, proposed to the 
government to keep a garrison, if he could have the aid of three soldiers ; this 
numher was sent him. Mr. F. was a man of note, had traded much with the 
Indians in former years, and both he and his location were well known to them. 
A body of them, said to be about eighty in number, some time in July, had deter- 
mined to capture him. They had been prowling about this region, and one 
morning surrounded his garrison. On this morning two of the soldiers had left 
the garrison, one for a hunt, and the other to visit a house some miles distant. 
The latter soon discovered the Indians secreted in the tall grass, between him and 
the house ; and in attempting to return he was shot down. Mr. Fitch, with 
only one soldier left, determined to defend the garrison if possible ; but this sol- 
dier, after firing a few times, was shot by an Indian through the neck and fell 
dead. Mrs. F. loaded the guns, with which her husband continued to defend the 
house for some time. The Indians at last told him, that if he would surrender, 
they should all be spared ; but if he persisted in tiring, that all should perish in 
the flames of the garrison. After consulting with his wife, he caj)itulated. The 
Indians then burned the house and took the captive family towards Canada. 

Soon after the building was on fire, Perkins, the absent soldier, espied the 
smoke, and on ascending a hill could see the ruins ; he gave the alarm, and 
by dark, a hundred armed men, from Lunenburg and the vicinity, were ready to 
pursue the enemy. They waited till daylight, when they followed the trail of 
the Indians, who had proceeded along by the south side of Watatic mountain, 
and made their first stop at Ashburnham meeting-house, the inhabitants of which 
town had abandoned it the year previous. Somewhere in the township of Ash- 
burnham, the pursuers found a piece of paper, tied to the limb of a tree, and on 
examining it they found a request, in the hand writing of Fitch, begging that they 
might not be followed, as the Indians had assured him of safety ii' not pursued, 
but would destroy them all, if his friends attempted a rescue. Upon this the 
party returned. Among the plunder taken by the Indians on this occasion, was 
a log-chain, which an Indian carried over his shoulders all the way to Canada, 
and there sold it to a Frenchman for a quart of rum. At the close of the war, 
Mr. F. and all his family returned home, as we learn from the following paragraph 
in the Boston Gazette, of Oct. 4, 1748 : 

" Sept. 23d. Arrived in town from Canada by Albany, five French gentle- 
men, and brought with them several prisoners, among whom were Mr. John 
Fitch, of Lunenburg, with his wife and five children, who was taken the 3d of 
July last by the French and about eighty Indians and carried to Canada, where 
they met with good treatment from the French." 

In 1749, Mr. Fitch presented a petition to the General Court, giving a full 
account of his sufferings and losses, and asking for relief. He once owned part 
of the Judge Champney Farm, in this town, and is said to have resided there for 
a time. He finally became poor and dependent on the town of Asliby. About 
fifty years after his death, a monument was erected to his memory ; as one has 
waggishly suggested, "he asked for bread, and they gave hira a stone." 



INDIAN ALARMS. 47 

and he did so. It is probable, however, that his family ac- 
companied the fugitives. In the course of a month or two, 
their fears were allayed, by the report of the scouts which 
had been sent out, that the Indians had retired beyond 
the Connecticut river ; and they returned to their deserted 
homes. Capt. Tucker was found safe. They also found that 
their meeting house had been burnt ; but whether by the 
Indians, or by fire from the burning forests, was uncertain. It 
was probably by the latter however, as the Indians would not 
have been likely to destroy the meeting house alone, while 
they left the private dwellings unmolested. 

The inhabitants of this town seem never afterwards to have 
been seriously alarmed on account of the Indians, though 
some of the neighboring towns were led to feel the need of 
protection. In 17.50, Peterborough petitioned for a block 
house and soldiers, pleading their great danger and exposure. 
Even as lately as Jan., 17.55, when the Indians ravaged and 
burnt the towns on the Connecticut river, the people of Ips- 
wich Canada (Winchendon), called for aid, stating that In- 
dians were about, and they could not cultivate their fields ; 
so that they were dependent on Lunenburg, Lancaster, and 
Groton for food. Nor were their fears groundless, for traces 
of the visitation of savages were detected near at hand, by 
the scouts.* 

But such was the rapid progress then being made in this 
town, that the settlers felt themselves in comparative secu- 
rity; and when at the Proprietors' meeting, in Jan., 1757, the 
question was put whether " the Proprietors will build a fort 
or forts in this township," it was voted "not to build any 
forts in this township ; " and again, whether they " will re- 
pair Mr. Adams' flankers in order for defence, against the 
enemy," it was voted in the negative. This is the only inti- 
mation we have, that any means of defence against tlie Indians 
were ever adopted in this town. These "flankers" were a 

* Eleazer Lawrence scouted about Dorchester Canada, Ipswich Canada, New 
I|)s\vich, &c. " Aug. 31, (17.55) at Ipswich Canada, discovered a small number 
of tracks, supposed to be Indian tracks, and followed four or five miles, and found 
the bushes cut up and bent down in sundry places, as the usual manner of the 
Indians is, when they travel upon the discovery," &c. Several other journals 
of the same import exist. 



48 EARLIEST CIVIL HISTORY. 

sort of breastwork of logs and stakes, extending outwards and 
inwards from the angles of the house, with a port-hole at 
the point of meeting. Douglass, who wrote in 1748, says 
hideed, that there were two block houses in New Ipswich. 
Mr. Adams' house might have been one of those to which 
he alludes, and Capt. Tucker's another. It is probable that 
our forefathers were indebted for their immunity from Indian 
intrusions to the mountain barrier on the west. This opposed 
a serious obstacle to a ready retreat with plunder ; and 
hence we find it to have been the custom of the savages to 
confine themselves, in all their predatory excursions, to the 
principal water courses and low lands. 

More than ten years had now elapsed since the pioneer set- 
tlers had threaded their way, through the forest, to this their 
land of promise, clothed in the homeliest of garments, and 
carrying little else with them than the axe for offence and 
the firelock for defence. From time to time their scanty num- 
ber has been reinforced. Their title has proved worthless ; 
and while, laboring under this discouragement and uncertain 
of the future, they unitedly persevere, they are dispersed by 
fears of the savage foe. Now, they are reunited, and ready 
for renewed effort. Much of this time they have lived with 
no other shelter than the broad arch of heaven, or temporary 
huts of logs and bark, with moss and twigs for their couch 
at night. They have subsisted chiefly on fish and such game 
as the wild woods furnished, with wild berries for condiments, 
and water from the spring for their beverage. They have 
toiled early and late at the laborious task of the woodsman. 
And what are the visible results of all this ? A dozen or fifteen 
small clearings might be seen scattered here and there in the 
dense forest, scathed and blackened by fire, and these still beset 
with stumps. In the midst of them as many log cabins, many 
of them destitute of chimneys, with merely a broad hearth- 
stone, or a semicircular wall for a fire-place. A few beans 
and turnips, with patches of corn and rye interspersed among 
the stumps, are beginning to appear ; and a few domestic ani- 
mals are browsing around the dwellings of the more fortunate. 
Prospective roads and bridle-paths from house to house had 



RECAPITULATION. 49 

been marked out, by spotting the trees ; a bridge had been 
thrown over the Sonhegan at one point, and something had 
been done towards clearing out a road through the town to the 
country beyond. A house for pubhc worship had been erected, 
thougli never occupied for that purpose ; but from the pious 
hves and subsequent public profession of nearly every adult 
member of this little community, we have reason to believe 
that every tenement was a temple from which the incense of 
devout worship daily ascended ; and that the Sabbath, which 
within our memory, was so rigidly kept by their descendants, 
was no less strictly observed by themselves. They were still 
destitute of schools ; none of the comforts and few of the ne- 
cessaries of life were accessible ; there was no one to consult 
who could afford skillful aid in cases of sickness ; the nearest 
corn-mill was at Townsend, some ten miles distant ; and with 
the important exception of a blacksmith, there seem to have 
been no artisans among them. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROPRIETARY HISTORY, 1749-62. 

masonian grantees ; arrangement with massachusetts 
grantees; laying ottt of farm lots; allotment of farms; 

SAW AND grist MILL ; BRIDGE OVER THE SOUHEGAN ; APPROPRI- 
ATION FOR preaching; DELINQUENT SETTLERS; TAXES; COMMON, 
AND BURIAL GROUND ; FIRST PAUPERS; RECAPITULATION. 

With the obtaining of the Masonian Grant, in 1749, our 
authentic history begins. The French and Enghsh war had 
terminated, and with it Indian hostiUties had ceased. The 
fugitive pioneers had returned, and a title to the lands had 
been secured. No further obstacles now remain to the suc- 
cessful advance of the infant settlement. 

Among the petitioners for the grant, we find the names of 
thirteen persons who are specified as being '' all of a place 
called New Ipswich." These were Reuben Kidder, Archibald 
White, Jonas Woolson, Habijah Foster, John Brown, Benja- 
min Hoar, Jr., Timothy Heald, Joseph Kidder, Joseph and 
Ebenezer Bullard, Joseph Stevens, Henry Pudney and John 
Chandler. Most of these we recognize as among the pioneers 
who had previously resided here, before the desertion of the 
town for fear of the Indians. The other seventeen proprietors 
belonged to Hollis, Dunstable, Townsend, Old Ipswich, Gro- 
ton, Westford, Littleton and Medfield; and several of them 
soon after removed to this place, and the settlement went on 
vigorously. The Kidders came in from Westford ; the Ap- 
pletons and Adams' from Ipswich ; the Farrars from Lincoln ; 
and the Barrets from Concord : — the men who controlled the 
early destinies of the town, who stamped its character, and 
have always held a conspicuous place in its history. Many 
came as proxies for non-resident proprietors, to occupy and 
improve their lots, according to the terms of the grant; while 



SHARES OF MASSACHUSETTS GRANTEES. 51 

Others purchased lots of the grantees, and became themselves 
proprietors. 

The first meeting of the Proprietors was held in Dunstable, 
April 16, 1749. At the next meeting however, it was " Voted 
that all meetings shall be heald at New Ipswich for the futer ; 
and that the owners of five shears shall be sufficient to request 
meetings for the time to com, and that notifications being 
posted up at New Ipswich, Old Ipswich and Dunstable shall 
be sufficeant warning for said proprietors." [P. R. 17.] The 
principal business at the first, and of the two subsequent 
meetings, was, to adjust the claims of those who had made 
improvements under the Massachusetts grant, or whose lot 
had been transferred from one township to another, by the 
new direction of the eastern boundary line ; to cause a survey 
of the town, and agree upon a plan for the distribution of lots ; 
and to make arrangements for the erection of a corn-mill and 
saw-mill. 

Thomas Dennis, Francis Choate, Nathaniel Smith, and 
William Peters, who had been proprietors under the Massa- 
chusetts grant, were admitted as proprietors ; each of them to 
have one share, equal in value to those of the other grantees, 
and on the same conditions and limitations ; and moreover, 
they were privileged to select one of the eighty acre lots which 
they formerly held under the grant of the Province, having 
the remainder of their share made up out of the common land. 
In regard to the lots which fell into Mason, or which had 
been taken in from Townsend, the following votes were 
passed : 

" Voted that all the Lotts that was hearetofore laid out in said 
township and are now taken off by the other townships (viz.) by the 
township Number One and Two, shall be by a committee to be 
chosen for that Purpus laid out in the Common land, in said town- 
ship, and quallified by said Committee : said Lotts that are to be 
laid out are to be laid adjoyning to the other Lotts formerly laid 
out in said town, and as conveniant for settleing as may be ; and 
that those persons owning said Lotts being grantees, to have s"* 
Lotts which are new laid out, in Lue of the Lotts taken off as a 
fore said." 

" Also Voted, if any of said Grantees have or had any land in 
the township or any part thereof formerly called Townshend and 



52 PROPRIETARY HISTORY. 

now falls into the township of New Ipswich shall have a whole 
Wright or part thereof laid out in the same place to them, said Com- 
mittee quallifying the same eaqual to other shares." [P. R. 12.] 

Ill regard to the general distribution of the lands, it v/as in 
the first place determined that the whole number of shares 
should be sixty-three. By the grant, it had been provided 
that each of the eighteen grantors should first draw two of 
the 128 eighty acre lots, surveyed by the Massachusetts pro- 
prietors ; and that afterwards each grantee should draw two 
of the remaining lots for each right. The remainder of the 
township was then to be laid out into seventy acre lots, and 
another draught had of two of these lots, in the same manner. 
A committee was chosen, consisting of Isaac Appleton, Jona- 
than Hubbard, Reuben Kidder, Benjamin Hoar and John 
Stevens, to proceed as soon as may be, with a survey under 
oath, and lay out the seventy acre lots, " and that they topple 
the same together, making them as neare as may be of equal 
valine;" and they were to receive for this service, "while 
they are in said township about said service," thirty shillings 
per day, old tenor. The Committee found, however, upon 
actual survey, in consequence of the town not having been 
laid out so large as supposed, that the commons would not 
hold out seventy acres to each lot ; and it was accordingly 
laid out in lots of about sixty-six acres each, together with 
seven other lots ranging from eighty to one hundred and 
twenty acres. These dimensions were adopted by the propri- 
etors, as an equitable arrangement both for themselves and 
the Masonian grantors, who by the charter were entitled to 
seventy acre lots. The whole number of lots, including those 
which had been cut off at the northeast part of the town, was 
about 275 ; which left some twenty lots, after the distribution 
of four lots to each of the sixty-three shares, wherewith to 
compensate those who had been deprived of their lots in con- 
quence of their falling within the present town of Mason. 

By a note in the Proprietors' records, it appears that the 
drawing of the eighty-acre lots took place at Dunstable, July 
10, 1750, although there is no record to show that any meet- 
ing was called at that time. The sixty-six-acre lots, or afier- 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE LANDS. 



53 



lots, as they were usually called, were drawn at New Ipswich 
May 28, 1751, and resulted as shown m the Tables which 
follow on this and the next pages. A specific description of 
each lot, with a plan of it, is carefully given in the Proprie- 
tors' book. 

To carry all their grain ten miles to the mill in Townsend, 
over such roads as then existed, and generally upon their own 
backs, must have caused the people great inconvenience and 
loss of time. Immediate measures were therefore taken to 
remedy the evil ; and Reuben Kidder, Deacon Benjamin Hoar, 
Mr. Isaac Appleton and John Stevens were chosen a Commit- 
tee to select a " mill place " where it would best accommodate 
the Proprietors, and agree with some proper person to build a 
saw and grist mill. They accordingly selected a site on the 











o 




oi 


]Maso;vian- 
Proprietors. 


Q 


Pi 




^ 


0) 

< 


.2 
"> 




c 


3 








fi 




2: 


m 




^ 






Theodore Atkinson, 


43 
61 








84 


107 


Thomas Packer, 




XIII. 
VII. 


4 
4 




82 


83 


]Mark H. Wentworth, 


38 
39 








67 


94 


John Moftatt, 


14 


XIV. 


2 




80 


81 


George Jaftrey, 


29 






24 


172 


173 


John Ringe, 




IX. 


3 


11 


176 


177 


John Wentworth, 




VIII. 


1 


56 


87 


109 


Joshua Peirce, 




VIII. 


3 


2 


89 


90 


Nathaniel Meserve, 




V. 


1 


10 


102 


93 


Richard Wibird, 








28 
2 


162 


165 


Jothani Odiorne, 


23 


V. 


3 


68 


95 


Peirce & Moor, 


13 


XV. 


3 




167 


169 


Tomlinson & Mason, 


59 






60 


163 


164 


Matthew Livermore, 


62 


VII. 


1 




126 


128 


William Parker, 


58 






44 


160 


161 


Thomas Wallingford, 




VIII. 
IV. 


4 
3 




85 


86 


Joseph Blanchard, 




II. 

IV. 


4 
4 




155 


157 


Solly & March, 




XV. 


4 


64 


181 


182 



64 



PROPRIETARY HISTORY. 



GRANTEES. 


North Div. 


South Div. 


New laid out. 


After E 


ivisions. 


Reuben Kidder, 


46 


XIII. 1 




76 


77 


« <£ 


55 


XIV. 1,3 
III. 3 




131 
96 


122 


Archibald White, and > 
Joseph Buliard, 5 


19 


I. 2 




175 


179 


Capt. Jonas Woolson, 




C IV. 2 
I XV. 2 




118 


121 


Abijah Foster, 


33 


I. 3 




152 


159 


John Brown, 


31 




65 


60 




Benjamin Hoar, Jr., 


40 


II. 1 




149 


150 


« 




5 V. 2 
I VI. I 




74 


66 


Timothy Heald, 






65,66 


186 


141 


Joseph Kidder, 


48 


IX. 1 




148 


151 


Ebenezer Bnllard, 




5 II. 2 
i II. 3 




129 


130 


Joseph Stevens, 


35 


VII. 3 




44 




Henry Pudney, 


49 




7 


124 


122 


John Chandler, 




( III. 1 

I IV. 1 

IX. 4 




108 


105 


Hannah Dinsmore, 


54 




125 


137 


Rev. Daniel Emerson, 




VII. 2 


71 


133 


112 


David Nevins, 




XI. 4 


187 


78 


79 


Capt. Peter Powers, 






1, 12 


71 




Zaccheiis Lovewell, 




S XI. 3 

^XII. 3 




145 


140 


Joseph French, 




5 III. 4 
i X. 3 




146 


147 


Maj. Jonathan Hubbard, 


47 


IX. 2 




92 


88 


John Stevens, 


34 


XII. 2 




141 


188 


" " 




X. 4 


5 


98 


99 


« <« 


52 


XV. I 




28 




Isaac Ap|)leton, 


63 


III. 2 




117 


116 


« it 


42 


XVI. 2 




138 


139 


te te 


64 


XI. 1 




170 


171 


ee cc 


42 


VIII. 2 




72 




<c <c 




VI. 2 


69 


183 


184 


« (C 


9 




72 


123 


119 


Thomas Adams, 


21,25 






166 


168 


a a 


22 


XIV. 4 




24 




a (C 


17 


XVI. 1 




1.56 


158 


11 a 


18 


X. 2 




178 


ISO 


a a 


50, 51 






70 




Robert Choate, 




C I. 4 

i X. 1 

VI. 4 




73 




William Brown, 


30 




120 


144 


Nathaniel Smith, 


45 


XIII. 3 




154 




(C te 




^XVI. 3 




91 


103 






l XII. 4 








Thomas Dennis, 


57 




67 


56 




Andrew Spaulding, and ) 
John Marsh, 5 


37 


XII. 1 




153 




Isaac Pailh, 


15 


V. 4 








Zaccheus Lovewell, 




XI. 2 


186 


115 


143 


First Minister's Right, 


32 


XIII. 2 




75 


106 


Ministerial Right, 


20 


XVI. 4 




lots on S 


triplown. 


School Right 






134, 174 


110 


Ill 


Benjamin Hoar, 


26 




16 


135 


136 


' i< <( 


36,53 






69 


104 


Francis Choate, 




VI. 3 


66 


97 




Col. John Choate, 


27 






113 


114 


William Peters, 






70 







SAW AND GRIST MILL. 55 

Soiihegan, and made a contract with John Chandler of West- 
ford to erect the Mills. He was to have the saw mill built 
and fitted for service by the last of October 1750; and the corn 
mill in October 1751, He was to keep them in good repair 
for ten years, and to " grind and saw for the inhabitants ac- 
cording to the customs of other mills." On the other hand, 
that he might " have due encouragement for the carrying on 
said service," he was to have one full right in the township, 
without being obliged to pay the £40 in advance, which the 
other grantees paid ; and was to have for his first draught the 
lot on which the mills were to stand (IV. 1), a most valuable 
lot,* including the sites of all the present factories, and the lot 
adjacent to it on the east (III. 1). He was also to receive 
£50 Bills of Credit, old tenor, to be paid in March 1751. For 
the due performance "of the several matters and things as 
afore specified," he, with William Chandler of Westford, were 
bound in the sum of £400, new tenor, equal to about ,^140. 

The mills were built according to agreement ; but it seems 
that some difficulty afterwards arose as to his obligation to 
grind for the inhabitants according to their customs ; for in 
1757 a committee of five was appointed " to oblige John 
Chandler to fulfill his obligation in grinding," [P. R. 239] ; 
and again, in 1759, it was "Voted not to accept four days 
grinding in a week, this winter." Mr. Chandler seems not to 
have been well pleased with his position, and in 176S, before 
the close of his contract, he sold out to Captain Eleazer Cum- 
mings, and left the town. Not long after, Capt. Cummings 
rebuilt the mills. They afterwards passed into the hands 
of Capt. William Pritchard, his son-in-law, who carried 
them on till they were finally removed to give place to the 

* This lot had been drawn by Isaac Appleton, who relinquished it for the 
especial purpose, as appears by the following quit-claim : 

" Whereas the Proprietors of New Ipswich stand in need of the Lott No. One 
in the fourth range in the south division, to build mills on, I the subscri'uer do 
hear by give up said Lott to said Proprietee who am the owner there of, the said 
Proprietors relinquishing my obligation to pay and do what I am obloiged to Do 
on the Right to which said Lott belongs, and to grant to me the vallue of said 
Lott." [P. R. 22]. 



As witness my hand ^ifCiXC C «-='^^^^/^^ 



56 PROPRIETARY HISTORY. 

Soiihegan Factory. The original mill-stone, to which so 
many of the inhabitants were for so long a time, in an impor- 
tant sense, indebted for their bread, is still to be seen in the 
vicinity of the old mill-site. 

At the second meeting of proprietors, at the honse of 
Benjamin Hoar, June 20, 1750, special attention was also 
directed to the highways. A contract was made for building a 
bridge over the Souhegan, " at or near the same place where the 
former bridge was built;" and a committee was chosen "to 
repair the ways in said town that are absolutely necessary." 

It was also voted that there shall be laid out £46 old tenor, 
to provide preaching in the fall of the year next coming ; and 
Joseph Stevens and Reuben Kidder were chosen a Committee 
'■to take cair to provide a propper person to preach," In 1752 it 
was voted " to build a meeting-house near the sou west corner 
of Oliver Proctor's house lot." But as these subjects will be 
separately treated, they are only mentioned here to show the 
early attention which our forefathers gave to the essential 
institutions and facilities on which the progress of every 
enlightened community depends, and the liberal provision 
they made for them in the day of small things. It would add 
to the pleasure with which we record these tokens of wisdom 
and foresight, had w6 the evidence that they were equally 
prompt in providing the means for public instruction. It is 
not, however, until after the incorporation of the town, more 
than ten years subsequent, that any record of provision for 
schools appears. 

The time having expired within which three acres of land 
were to be cleared, and a house and resident found on each 
Right, measures were taken to ascertain how far the proprie- 
tors had complied with the conditions. At the meeting in 
June, 1752, Benjamin Adams, Reuben Kidder and Capt. 
Jonas Wool son were chosen a committee for this purpose, to 
report at the next meeting (P. R. 34) ; and in March, 1753, it 
was " voted to choose three men as a Committee to sell the 
land in this place on which duty is not performed according to 
charter, or take bonds sufficient for the Proprietors' security. 
Chosen for said Committee Capt. Jonas Woolson, Benjamin 
Hoar and Joseph Stevens." (P. R. 186). 



TITLES TO THE LAND. 57 

The doings of this committee were approved at a meeting, 
Jan. 16, 1754. The result seems to have been to compel 
immediate attention to the fulfilment of the conditions of the 
charter ; and at the meeting on the 22d of the following April 
it was " Voted, That Mr. Joseph Stevens, Treasurer, shall 
give up those Bonds that were given into his hands for the 
Proprietors' security, if, upon his knowledge, they shall have 
completed their Duty according to Charter." (P. R. 200.) 
The compliance was so universal, that there is no further 
record to show that any one was ever molested in the posses- 
sion of his Right on this account. 

A more serious difficulty arose in attempting to enforce the 
payment of taxes, on account of the obstinacy of some, but 
probably from inability in most cases. 

In 1753, there was a kind of general reckoning. After an 
enumeration of taxes, laid at various times, " all persons 
concerned in this affair that do not pay " within three months, 
were notified that their land would be sold. To cut off all 
excuse, it is stated that " these Taxes were imposted and set 
up at several places, viz., one at said New Ipswich, one at 
Dunstable and one at Ipswich, and witnessed as followeth ; 
the one that was set up at New Ipswich, was put up at the 
House of Mr. Benj^ Hoar, Inholder, in Presence of said Hoar 
and me the subscriber, (Benj^^ Adams) ; and another was set 
up at Mr. Frenches, Inholder in Dunstable, in presence of Mr. 
Hardy, the fariman, and Lydia Adams, wife to Ephraim 
Adams* ; the other was set up at the House of Mr. Increase 
How, in Ipswich, in Presence of said How and Mr. Daniel 
Warner." (P. R. 189). 

The taxes were afterwards regularly imposted in a similar 
manner, in the town of New Ipswich only, and always with a 
notice " to all persons concerned in this affair," that their lands 
would be exposed for sale if the amount was not paid in three 
months. 

The duty of selling the lands on this account seems to have 
involved the committee, having the duty in charge, in serious 

* She is said to have travelled alone through the woods, from New Ipswich to 
Dunstable, to carry the notification. 

8 



58 PROPRIETARY HISTORY. 

difficulties, and probably subjected them also to odium and 
insult; so much so, that after it had been "Voted, that Mr. 
Reuben Kidder, Capt, Jonas Woolson and Benj\ Adams shall 
remain in their former office for to self the land of those that 
are delinquent in paying their imposted Taxes," the " three 
men before-mentioned utterly, for some considerations, refused 
to serve in the business," [P. R. 205.] The reason for their 
objections is explained in a subsequent vote, which, after di- 
recting and empowering them to sell the lands of delinquents, 
also authorizes them "to give the purchasers a Title accord- 
ing to Charter of said Township ;" and the Proprietors "pro- 
mis and Ingage to Secure and Defend said Committee from 
any Trouble or Charge they shall Receive or Sustain in their 
proceeding." [P. R. 209] . 

A similar difficulty arose with the Committee on Highways, 
and they were uuAvilling to proceed in their duties. Quite an 
excitement seems to have arisen on the occasion, and such 
was the amount of ill-humor, that at one meeting, (Aug. 1, 
1753,) after negativing every article in the warrant, in suc- 
cession, the Record winds up as follows: "and upon the 
whole, voted not to do any thing this meeting, for some con- 
siderations," [P. R. 207.] A series of instructions respecting 
their duties and powers restored harmony in this case also. 
[P. R. 200.] 

The petty jealousies and suspicions against those who have 
the principal management of affairs, which are so well known 
in larger communities, seems to have been cherished in this 
infant settlement. In 1755, there appears to have been a 
general clamor for reform; and it was " Voted to exchange 
some of the officers of the proprietors formerly chosen, for 
some new officers." [P, R. 220.] The Clerk, the Treasurer, 
and the Committee to reckon with the Treasurer, seem to have 
fallen into disgrace. In the case of the Treasurer, Joseph 
Stevens, there probably was some cause for dissatisfaction, if 
we may judge from the repeated and peremptory demands 
upon him for a settlement ; until at last the Committee to 
settle with him were authorized and empowered, if he 
neglected or refused to render to them his account, "jointly 
and severally, or any two of them, to sue and proceed on with 



COMMON AND BURYING GROUND. 69 

the above said Treasurer in sum proper action, for the recov- 
ery of such moneys, and to pursue the same to final 
judgement and execution, with a power of substituting." 
[P. R. 230.] Want of promptness in cohecting and accounting 
for the taxes, rather than want of honesty, seems to have 
brought tliis action upon him. 

Mar 21, 1753. Voted that Reuben Kidder, Ephraim Adams 
and Benjamin Hoar to be a Committee to take care of the 
prudentials of this place; also to layout a Burying place, 
and clear some their." [P. R. 187.] 

Feb. 27, 1754. Voted to give Joseph Kidder at the rate of 
twelve pounds an acre for clearing his land at the North West 
corner of his lott, (IX. 1,) to be for a common, 'after three 
years and a halfe from the date hereof" [P. R. 198.] The 
same vote was passed in relation to the South West corner of 
Joseph Bates' lott (No. 33, N. D.) ; and ten acres were after- 
wards laid out " adjoyning to the meeting house, agreeable to 
y" grant of y*" same." [P. R. 265.] 

The westerly part of tlie lot then laid out was subsequently 
exchanged with Mr. Farrar for land "under and about where 
the meeting house " afterwards stood. [P. R. 73, 75.] 

Nov. 26, 1754. Voted that four neat cattle shall stock a 
Right till such time as it shall be thought proper to alter this 
vote." [P. R. 214.] 

In 1757 we have the first indication that any one had 
become a charge upon the town on account of poverty. 
Aug. 25. " Voted that Timothy Heald shall draw out of the 
Treasury forty-five pounds, old tenor, for keeping Phmehas 
Goodale and carrying him to Townsend," [P. R. 238.] The 
next, and perhaps the first unequivocal case of pauperism is 
recorded in 1762, when it was voted, "to allow the reasona- 
ble charge of those who have supported Samuel Perham's 
children," [P. R. 270.] Mr. Perham came from Hollis, as 
proxy for Reuben Kidder, and both he and his wife died in 
the spring of 1761. A son also died the same year. Subse- 
quently, however, tlie committee having obtained further facts, 
inform the selectmen that they " intirely disallow what we 
have heretofore done in and about said accounts," and judge 
it unreasonable for the town to pay any thing, [T. R. 8.] 



60 



PROPRIETARY HISTORY. 



During the ten years, which up to this time, had elapsed 
after the obtaining of the grant from the Masonian proprietors, 
substantial progress had been made. The axe wielded by 
vigorous hands, and the devouring fire, had been active, and 
had made extensive inroads upon the forest. The number of 
inhabitants had increased from about one hundred and forty 
to something like three hundred and fifty, and among them 
were now many substantial families. The following year 
(1763), the first tax list appears ; and as it is the best means 
we can have to show the adult male residents at that period, 
their comparative substance, and also the farms in the town 
which were first occupied, we present the minister's rate entire. 



MINISTER'S RATE FOR THE YEAR 1763. 



Capt. Jonas Woolson, 


£10 


18s 


. 3 


Benjamin Knowlton, 


£,1 10s 


. 9 


Capt. Benjamin Hoar, 


10 


8 


10 


Archibald White, 


5 


18 





Thomas Wright, 


3 


11 


3 


Benjamin Procter, 


3 


1.5 


4 


Thomas Parrett, 


1 


19 


4 


Ezra Towne, 


2 


19 


1 


Ebeiiezer Heald, 


6 


9 


4 


George Start, 


7 


7 





Jacob Adams, 


2 


18 


1 


Es". Joseph Stevens, 


8 


3 


1 


Samuel Kinney, 


4 


7 





Nathan Cutter, 


5 


16 


3 


Thomas Heald, 


2 


14 


4 


Barnabas Davis, 


5 


3 


6 


Benjamin Gibbs, 


5 


10 


7 


Simeon Gould, 


2 


16 


8 


Samuel Whittemore, 


7 


9 


6 


John Brown, 


2 








Simeon Fletcher, 


4 


5 


1 


Benjamin King, 
Benjamin Safford, 


4 


14 


9 


Robert Campbell, 


4 


3 


1 


7 


4 


9 


Hezekiah Corey, 


2 


2 


2 


Wid". Mary Foster, 


3 


3 


9 


Andrew Conn, 


2 


6 


3 


Wid". Elizabeth Fletcher, 




19 


1 


Joel Crosby, 


4 


17 


6 


Joseph Kidder, 


4 


6 


3 


Thomas Adams, 


7 


8 


1 


Joseph Bates, 


6 


9 


1 


Simeon Hildreth, 


3 


4 


8 


Isaac Appleton, 


9 


4 


6 


Stephen Adams, 


7 


12 


7 


James Farrar, 


3 


18 


9 


Jesse Carleton, 


2 


5 


6 


James Wilson, 


2 








John Chandler, 


11 


7 





Reuben Kidder, Esq. 


16 


13 


10 


Peletiah Whittemore, 


2 


8 


9 


Robert Waugh, 


3 


10 





Elias Stone, 


2 


16 


3 


Samuel Parker, 


5 


1 


3 


Thomas Spaulding, 


2 


9 


7 


Abel Wright, 


4 


11 


10 


Stephen Adams, Jr. 


2 


1 


2 


Thos. Earns worth. 


3 


11 


10 


Timothy Heald, 


7 


I 





Kendall Briant, 


6 


7 


6 


Joseph Bullard, 


4 


14 


1 


Andrew Spaulding, 


3 


15 





Ebenezer Bullard, 


7 


13 


7 


Josiah Crosby, 


4 


6 





Capt. Moses Tucker, 


11 


3 


10 


Moses Tucker, Jr. 


3 


15 





James French, 


2 


8 


9 


Thomas Fletcher, 


6 


4 


1 


John Dutten, 


7 


10 


7 


Francis Fletcher, 


6 


9 


9 


John Dutten, Jr. 


2 


13 


1 


William McClary, 


4 


18 





Elijah Dutten, 


2 


1 


10 


Wid°. Catherine McClary, 


1 


13 


9 


Dea. Benjamin Adams, 


7 


.5 


6 


Daniel McClary, 


2 








Dca. Ephraim Adanis, 


6 


19 


6 


Aaron Kidder. 


7 


7 


4 


Abba Severance, 


3 


6 





Isaac How, 


7 


2 


10 


Peter Fletcher, 


3 


17 


7 


William Brown, 


2 


8 


7 



RECAPITULATION. 



61 



Benjamin Cutter, 


£5 


Is 


3 


Ichabod How, 


£8 8s 


1 


Silas Parlier, 


2 








Asa Bullard, 


2 





Leonard Parker, 


2 








Joseph Richardson, 


2 





Simeon Wright, 


2 








George Hewett, 


3 17 


10 


Thomas Brown, 


2 


8 


9 


Silas Russell, 


2 





William Spear, 


5 


1 


3 


Zachariah Emery, 


2 





Nathaniel Carleton, 


2 


16 


3 


Zachariah Adams, 


7 12 


3 


Amos Taylor, 


2 


10 


7 


Samuel Foster, 


2 





Reuben Taylor, 


3 


15 





Joseph Parker, 


2 





Robert Crosby, 


3 


6 


7 


John Mcintosh, 


2 





John Preston, 


3 


15 





Wid". Mary Brown, 


14 





Samuel Perham, 


2 








Total, je436 10s. 8d. 


= $200 near 


ly. 



The above is a copy of the Ministers' Rate for the year 1763 — the assessment 
was on silver at £2 5s. per dollar, as they were set or valued in the Massachu- 
setts Provinces, in the currency of the said Province, by reason that our Contract 
with y^ Rev. Mr. Stephen Farrar was for Silver as aforesaid. 

TIMOTHY HEALD, Town Clerk. 



We find the whole number of tax-payers to be ninety-five. 
They were all in the prime of life, the oldest of them, Capt. 
Moses Tucker, being only 58 years of age. Among them wc 
find four widows, showing that the universal destroyer had 
already commenced his work here, and ten or twelve had 
already become tenants of the old burying ground ; besides 
which, tradition says there were five buried near the head of 
the fe^afibrd lane, previous to the opening of the old cemetery 
in 17.53. Among these were a son and daughter of Ebenezer 
Bullard ; a son of Joseph Bullard ; two sons and a daughter of 
Benj. Adams ; the wife of Ephraim Adams ; a daughter of 
Benj. King; two sons and a daughter of Benj. Hoar; Samuel 
Perham, his wife, and a son ; Abijah Foster, the first settler, 
and one of his sons had died in the army. 

We may also see that most of the principal farms in town 
were already occupied. The east and north quarters, howev- 
er, seem to have been more fully occupied than the south and 
west. The centre village contained four or five houses ; 
Joseph Kidder's house stood where J. Preston, Esq., now 
lives : his lot extended thence southerly to where the 
meeting-house now stands, comprising the main street and 
the meadow. It was then an alder swamp, so dense that 
Judge Farrar said he had seen the time when he could walk 
across, on the bushes, without touching the ground ; and it was 
regarded as so worthless, that " poor as Joe Kidder's lot " 



62 PROPRIETARY HISTORY. 

became a proverb in town. Joseph Bates occupred the house 
buih by Abijah Foster, on the lot north of Kidder, which 
comprises the remainder of the village and the intervale now 
improved by Joseph Barrett, Esq. Oliver Proctor lived on 
the lot next west, and his house stood at the northwest corner 
of the old academy. This afterwards became the farm of the 
Rev. Mr. Farrar, who soon built a small tenement, still or 
recently standing, attached to the north side of the old tavern 
house, at the corner of the road to the starch factory. Isaac 
Appleton lived on the lot next west, and his house stood near 
where the road turns from the old turnpike to the bake house 
village. Soon after. Dr. Preston built the house where Maj. 
Seth King recently lived, and James Farrar built on the spot 
so long occupied by Judge Farrar ; and these were the only 
houses in the village for many years afterwards. Roads had 
already been cleared to the principal points in town, so that 
the settlers had been able to transport their proportion of 
lumber for the erection of the meeting bouse ; but they could 
have been little better than the sled paths now used for 
obtaining fuel from the forests. The day of uncertainty had 
passed, and all doubts as to the success and stability of the 
settlement had vanished. 



CHAPTER V. 



INCORPORATION TO THE REVOLUTION, 



proprietary affairs terminated ; first town meeting ; town 
officers ; litigation with capt. kidder ; the pound ; dr. 
Preston's tax ; municipal division of the town ; liquor 
LAWS ; non-importation resolves ; ammunition ; john Hol- 
land's FINE ; CLAIM FOR REPRESENTATION ; RECAPITULATION. 



The Act of Incorporation having been obtained, the 
mimicipal affairs of the town assume a different form, mider 
officers annually chosen by the tax-paying citizens. The 
Proprietors, as such, no longer direct the interests of the town, 
laying taxes to defray expenses on the several Proprietors' 
Rights, but they are imposed according to the valuation of 
property. Indeed the functions of the Proprietors nearly 
cease at this time, their acts for the following ten years being 
confined to the settlement of old claims, the collecting of 
arrearages, and the giving of some assistance in aid of a new 
meeting-house. 

Oct. 13, 1764. They agree to raise £6. 13. 4. silver, old 
tenor, on each uninhabited 80 acre lot, and £3. 6. 8. on each 
sixty-six acre lot, half to be paid on the raising of the meeting 
house, and half when it should be finished, " upon the town 
taking the contract upon them that the Proprietors made with 
the Rev. Mr. Farrar." [P. R. 275.] 

Dec. 30, 1770. They declare themselves ready to pay the 
above sums upon " receiving of said town our proportionable 
part of the Meeting Hous according to our pay." [P. R. 283.] 

May 22, 1765. "Voted that Dea. Ephraim Adams, Mr. 
Benj. Safford and Ichabod How be a Committee to collect the 
arrearages of all the former Taxes and Finish the affair." 
[P. R. 277.] 



64 INCORPORATION TO THE REVOLUTION. 

The Charter of Incorporation was signed Sept. 9, 1762, and 
the first meeting of the town was held on the thirteenth of 
the same month. The following is a copy of the Record. 

At the first Town Meeting held at Ipswich in New Hamp- 
shire, by Veirtue of a Charter of Incorporation held in said 
Ipswich. 

Capt. Jonas Woolson chosen Moderator of said meeting. 

Moses Tucker, Dr. John Preston and Robert Crosby chosen 
Selectmen. 

Ebenezer Bullard chosen Constable. 

Ichabod How and Thomas Heald chosen a Committee to 
examine the Selectmen's accounts, and make Report of the 
same at the next annual meeting. 

Voted that the Selectmen shall serve as Assessors. 

Benjamin Knowlton and Isaac Appleton chosen tithingmen. 

Joseph Bates was chosen Sealor of Waits and Measurs. 

Sam' Kinney, Simeon Gould and Aaron Kidder chosen 
deer keepers. 

Joseph Stevens, Thomas Farnsworth, Francis Fletcher, 
Ebenezer Heald and Joseph Bullard chosen Surveirs of High 
ways. 

Robert Crosby chosen Surveir of Lumber. 

Timothy Heald, Town Clerk. 

The number of families in town, at this time, was about 
75, and the number of inhabitants probably about 400. The 
amount voted to pay the necessary charges in the town, was 
£1200 old tenor. 

The Records of the town from this time up to the period of 
the Revolution, afford but few incidents for history. They 
recount, from year to year, the Officers elected, the taxes 
raised, the various steps taken in building meetinghouses, 
settling a pastor, establishing schools and improving the 
highways. The following votes comprise pretty much all 
else that is specially interesting. 

1763. " Voted to chuse an agent to defend in behalf of this 
town, in those actions commenced against this Town, by 
Capt. Kidder and Samuel Parker." [T. R. 8.] What these 
actions were is now uncertain ; but they probably grew out of 
some proposition to indemnify the Striptown sufferers on 



SUNDRY VOTES. 65 

certain conditions. An execution was obtained against the 
town, and a tax of £728 17^. 7d. = ^325, was laid to satisfy 
it. This probably gave displeasure to the people, as Capt. 
Kidder seems never afterwards to have been conspicuous in 
town aifairs. 

" Voted to build a Pound of Wood, and to set it on Joseph 
Kidder's Land, south of the road, on the east side of the 
Brook that runs out of said Kidder's meddow." [T. R. 9."] 
This was nearly opposite the late Dr. Barr's residence, and 
was used about twenty years. 

" Voted not to abate Doct. Preston's Rate for his head and 
hors nor Relese him from pay for his head and hors for the 
future." [T. R. 10.] He had probably claimed this immuni- 
ty on the same ground that Chandler, the miller, was released 
from the initial tax on his right — because of being a public 
benefactor. 

After the interregnum which took place at the expiration of 
the first Charter of Incorporation, and on the reception of the 
new one, which restored to the town its original name. New 
Ipswich, a Town Meeting was called March 17, 1767, by 
Reuben Kidder, "one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace 
for the Province of New Hampshire," and probably the only 
one in this vicinity, and the town government was again 
organized by the choice of officers. 

1767. "Voted to chuse two Constables for the present 
year." [T. R. 24.] From this time the town was municipally 
divided into two Districts, by a line running east and w6st, 
one range of lots south of the centre line. A separate tax -list 
was prepared for each ; and a sort of rivalry resulted through 
a long series of years, in both civil and military matters. 

" Voted for calling town meetings for the future the Consta- 
ble notifie at the Mill and the most public House in town." 
[T. R. 28.] 

"Voted not to pay the Select men." The next year, 
however, it was voted to pay the Select men for taking the 
Invoice and making Rates, and nothing else. [T. R. 27.] 

" Voted not to exact the fine of Lieut. Bates for his not 
serving Constable for said year." He had been regularly 
chosen, but "refused to serve this year." 
9 



60 INCORPORATION TO THE REVOLUTION. 

1770. " Whereas sundry persons have been hcensed to sell 
spirituous hquors in this town, who have not had the Appro- 
bation of the Select men, which we think has a bad Tendency, 
and has already been to the damage of the Town, 

Voted that the Town Clerk in behalf of the Town, prefer 
a Petition to the Court of Quarter Sessions, that no person, 
for the future be licensed but what have the Approbation of 
the Selectmen." [T. R. 65.] 

" Voted that Commissions of profit and faculty s and licensed 
Houses be Rated by the Selectmen according to their supposed 
profits." 

1770. An article was inserted in the Warrant for town 
meeting, as follows : " To pass such further Resolves respect- 
ing the non-Importation agreement of the Generous Sons of 
Liberty at Boston as shall be thought proper." [T. R. 76.] 
This probably refers to the non-importation agreement passed 
in Boston, Aug. 1768. It is the first indication of a revolu- 
tionary spirit among the citizens. The article was, however, 
dismissed without action, the majority of the people not being 
yet convinced that rebellion against the mother country Avas 
called for. Another vote, soon after, shadowed forth the rising 
spirit of resistance more significantly. " Voted that the Select 
men provide a Stock of Amunition, sutable for the town." 
[T. R. 78.] 

" Voted to build a place for the Town Stock of Amunition 
on the Beams under the Roof of the Meeting house." 

1773. " Voted that the Selectmen provide Burying Cloths 
for the Town's use." 

Considerable commotion seems to have arisen this year, in 
consequence of an assessment laid on the County by the 
"Sessions of the Peace" to be granted to John Holland, 
Deputy Sheriff*. It would seem that a prisoner, by the name 
of Joseph Kelly, had escaped from his custody, whereby he 
had incurred a penalty, which the Court remitted to him, and 
assessed upon the County. Holland had made himself 
obnoxious to the people on account of his tory principles ; and 
a committee was first appointed to go to Amherst and inquire 
into the cause of the grant : afterwards a petition was drawn 
up to the General Court to repeal or suspend this order of the 



REPRESENTATION. 67 

Court of Sessions. The appeal was probably without avail, 
as we find a vote of the town the following year, to refund the 
Selectmen the cost of an execution from the County Sessions. 
Holland joined the British in 1775; his estate was confiscated, 
and he himself pronounced an outlaw the next year. 

1774, Dec. 6. At this time occurs the first decidedly 
political act of the town which we find recorded. It is in 
accordance with the spirit of the times. 

" Voted, That it is the opinion of this Town that Represent- 
ation is absolutely necessary to legal taxation or Legislation ; 
and whereas this town has, for a number of years, been taxed 
to the Province, and have had no Voice in Legislation, which 
is a great Grievance : and in order to obtain a Redress, that the 
Selectmen of this town do forward a Petition and Remon- 
strance to his Excellency our Governour, that we may enjoy 
those privileges which are essential to the British Constitution, 
and that they call upon the adjacent Towns to adopt the like 
measures ; and endeavor that the unrepresented Towns come 
into similar measures throughout the Provmce." [T. R. 127.] 

This phraseology about grievances, remonstrances and 
redress, seems rather magniloquent when it is considered that 
only about three years previous, Dec, 1770, an article was 
introduced into the Warrant, " to see if the town will come 
into a Meathod to send a Representative," when it was " voted 
not to send a Representative at present ;" and even no longer 
than the preceding March it was voted, " not to petition the 
Governor for the Privilege of sending a Representative." 
[T. R. 119.] But it breathes the spirit of the times, and 
shows to what an extent the people had been aroused to a 
sense of their political rights during that brief period. It 
embodies the essential principles of a Republican government, 
and is a fitting prologue to the numerous subsequent acts re- 
specting the Revolution and the framing of the Constitution, 
which bear the impress of the Adamses and Farrars, and other 
patriots, and which will compare well with the doings of any 
legislative body of that eventful period. 

As the period preceding the Masonian Grant may be regard- 
ed as the infancy, and the one subsequent to it up to the incor- 
poration of the town may be considered as its period of child- 



68 INCORPORATION TO THE REVOLUTION. 

hood, so may the twelve years preceding the epoch at which 
we have now arrived, be considered its period of adolescence. 
It was the most impulsive and vigorous period of its history. 
It had acquired a growth from which it varied very little for 
the next fifty years. Nearly every farm, capable of cultiva- 
tion, had its occupant ; the number of farms then was even 
greater than at the present day, many of them having been 
given up to pasturage, or merged in adjoining farms. The 
number of inhabitants was now about nine hundred, having 
nearly trebled in fourteen years. They and their children 
lived in the days when it was customary to stay at home ; 
they Were isolated, intermarrying with each other, and form- 
ing one great family. It was they who founded all the insti- 
tutions of the town, and established its character. 

The town had now acquired the exercise of all its functions 
as a civilized and independent community. As early as 1763 
it was provided with the three essential dignitaries, the minis- 
ter, the lawyer, and the doctor ; and the inhabitants of the 
adjacent towns also were in a great measure dependent on 
them for advice. Col. Kidder had been for many years the 
only magistrate in the region, and many amusing stories are 
told of the quarrels that came before him, and the summary 
manner in which justice was administered.* The community 
had become much improved in general intelligence. Schools 
had been opened and school districts had been formed ; and 
there were resident in town three graduates of Harvard College. 

Great changes had taken place in the population. Very 
many additions and some deductions had been made. Four 
of the most substantial citizens had died, viz. : Captain 

* In the year 1773, a Peterborough man was detected in steaHng, and was 
brought before Col. Kidder, accompanied by a pretty full delegation of his towns- 
men. The proof was positive, and the man was pronounced guilty. As 
there was no jail in the Province nearer than Portsmouth, corporeal punishment 
was much more convenient for all parties, than a long journey and imprisonment. 
The Colonel therefore sentenced him to receive forty lashes save one. The cul- 
prit was tied up to one of the elms in front of the magistrate's mansion, and the 
punishment administered. Tradition says that he bore it with great philosophy, 
and after it was over, soothed his smart in a refreshing glass of rum ; and the 
" Peterborough folks " finished the afternoon in dancing on the green to some of 
their national Scotch airs, the late convict officiating as musician ; and finally, 
about dusk, went home in good humor, evidently much gratified with their day 
of recreation . 



INVOICE OF THE TOWN. 



69 



Moses Tucker, the patriarch of the town, at the age of 58, 
Ebenezer Bullard, Captain Aaron Kidder, and James Farrar. 
Another citizen, Simeon Fletcher, was killed at the raising 
of Wilton meeting-house, in 1773, on which occasion five 
persons lost their lives by the falling of the frame, and 
many others were maimed for life — among them Simeon 
Wright, of this town, had his ankle crushed, and William 
Spear had some of his ribs broken. This terrible catastrophe 
was the subject of a mournful ballad, which was familiarly 
known and sung for many years afterwards.* In 1769, quite 
a colony departed, to settle on a township in Maine (now the 
town of Camden,) in which Charles Barrett had an interest. 
Among these were Cory, Conn, Wheat, Waugh, Heald, 
Chandler the miller, Ichabod How and Joseph Stevens. 



An invoice of the town, taken in 1773, was as follows 



169 male polls, 

3 slaves, 

201 oxen and horses, 

267 cows, 



246 young cattle, 

IS acres of orchard, 
3118 " of pasturage, 
881 " arable and mowing. 
£66 lawful, the yearly income of stock in trade, money 
at interest, mills, &c. 

Whole number of inhabitants 882. 

The tax-list for 1774 will show the number of persons taxed 
at the commencement of the Revolution, who they were, 
whose lives and substance were devoted to the purchase of 
liberty, and what were their comparative means. 



* The whole Ballad consists of forty-two stanzas, of which the following 
specimens : 

Attention give, and yon shall hear All on a sudden broke a beam, 

A melancholy theme, And letdown fifty-three ; 

Of such an instance as there is Full twenty-seven feet they fell, 
But very seldom seen. 



In seventeen hundred seventy-three, 

September, seventh day. 
At Wilton did Almighty God 

His anger there display. 

Of men a great collection mot 
A meeting-house to raise. 

Therein to speak God's Holy Word, 
And foi to sing His praise. 



A shocking sight to see. 

Much timber with those men did fall, 
And edged tools likewise; 

All, in a heap, together lay 
With biftter shrieks and cries. 

* * * 

Some lay with brfiken shoulder bones 
And some with broken arms, 

Others with broken legs and thighs 
And divers other harms. 



70 



INCORPORATION TO THE REVOLUTION. 



TOWN 


FAX 






SOUTH 


Stephen Adams, Jr. 


£0 


8s 


3 


Silas Adams, 





8 


3 


Thomas Adams, 





9 


7 


Richard Alexanders, 





13 


9 


Charles Barrett, 


3 


4 


9 


Samuel Bartlett, 





17 


6 


John Breed, 


1 


15 


7 


John Brooks, 





12 


10 


Nathan Boynton, 


1 


2 


8 


Allen Breed, 





17 


1 


David Brooks, 





2 





Jesse Butterfield, 





8 


3 


Robert Campbell, 


1 


11 


9 


Nathaniel Carlton, 





12 


2 


James Chandler, 


1 


4 


6 


Hezekiah Corey, 


1 





6 


Thomas Cummings, 





9 


7 


Ephraim Chamberlain, 





2 


4 


Benjamin Carver, 





2 


3 


Ephraim Cummings, 





2 


3 


Samuel Cummings, 





16 


3 


Aaron Chamberlam, 





8 


3 


Bunker Clark, 





8 


3 


Benoni Cory, 





8 


3 


Thomas Davis, 





1 


8 


Jonathan Davis, 


1 


7 





Josiah Davis, 





12 





Wid«. Rachel Fletcher, 


1 


7 


6 


Timothy Fox, 


1 


8 


6 


Isaac Farwell, 





12 


2 


Timothy Farwell, 


oil 


11 


Wid''^'. Mary Foster, 





9 


5 


Nathaniel Farr, 





9 


7 


Ephraim Foster, 





11 


8 


Daniel Foster, 





8 


3 


William Faris, 





8 


3 


Benjamin Gibbs, 


1 


9 


5 


Capt. Benjamin Hoar, 


2 





10 


Ens". Thomas Heald, 


1 


11 


10 


Samuel Horsley, 





9 


9 


Sampson Ilildreth, 





2 


8 


Samuel Holden, 


1 


3 





William Hodgkins, 


1 





11 


Stephen Hiidreth, 





12 


2 


Simeon Ilildreth, 





19 


8 


Jonas Ilolden, 


1 


6 


1 


John Jaquith, 





1 





Samuel Kinny, 


1 


16 


5 


Sanuu'l Kiimy, jun'. 





10 


3 


Jacob Kendall, 





5 


9 


Strpbcii Lund, 





8 


3 


NatiiaiiicI lVI(;lvin, 





13 


3 


Cm|>1. .loiias Minott, 





8 


7 


John M;uisfield, 





11 


1 


John Melvin, 





\rj 


5 


David Melvin, 





11 


8 



FOR 1774. 

LIST. 

Abel Miles, £0 19s. 6 

Lieut, Obadiah Parker, 8 

Capt. Samuel Preston, 6 2 

James Preston, 9 11 

Joseph Parker, 111 

Stephen Peirce, 17 3 

Leonard Parker, 18 2 

Kendall Parsons, 8 3 

Joseph Pollard, 1 16 4 

Leonard Procter, 2 4 

Nathaniel Pratt, 10 9 

Abel Parker, 8 3 

Jonathan Parker, 8 3 

John Pratt, 5 6 

Nathaniel Reed, 18 2 

Jonathan Robbins, 16 6 

David Rumrill, 14 5 

Benjamin Safford, 2 6 

William Shattuck, 2 14 

Ephraim Severance, 8 3 

Thomas Spaulding, 18 1 

John Savvtell, 15 9 

David Saunders, 1 10 

Timothy Stearns, 14 11 

William Shattuck, jun'. 8 3 

John Scott, 17 8 

Thomas Sprague, 10 9 

Thomas Sprague, jun^. 8 3 

Reuben Taylor, 1 3 11 

Odoardo Thomas, 13 4 

James Tidder, 14 2 

Sampson Tuttle, 14 

Moses Tucker, 10 5 

Joseph Tenny, 14 2 

Capt. Jonas Woolson, 2 2 5 

Peletiah Whittemore, 9 7 

Samuel Whittemore, 2 8 11 

Henry Woods, 3 5 

Samuel Wood, 12 4 

Peletiah Whittemore, jun^ 14 9 

Supply Willson, 8 3 

John Wheeler, 19 10 

Joseph Warren, 14 4 

Simeon Wright, 19 6 

John Wilkins, 10 6 

Jonas Wheeler, 12 8 

John Walker, 14 11 

Oliver Wright, 11 

Jonas Wheeler, j^n^ 9 5 

Seth Wheeler, 1 6 1 

Nathan Wesson, 13 6 

Henry Wright, 8 

James Wright, 8 3 

Henry Spaulding, 8 3 

Elijah Flagg, 15 1 
Total, £86 Us. 6d. 



TAX PAYERS. 



71 



Dea". Ephraim Adams, 
Dea". Benjamin Adams, 
Lieut. Isaac Appleton, 
Francis Appleton, 
Ephraim Adams, jun'^. 
Levi Adams, 
Lieut. Stephen Adams, 
Phinehas Adams, 
M'. Joseph Adams, 
Lieut. Joseph Bates, 
Lieut. William Brown, 
Thomas Brown, 
Edmond Briant, 
Josiah Brown, 
Thomas Barnes, 
Joseph Baker, 
James Barrett, 
Capt. Nathan Barrett, 
Retire Bacon, 
John Boutwell, 
Ephraim Burge, 
John Brown, 
Joseph Brooks, 
John Brown, jun"^. 
Jonas Brown, 
M"^. Ebenezer Champney, 
Eleazer Cummings, 
Nathan Cutter, 
William Clary, 
Isaac Clarke, 
Jesse Carlton, 
Daniel Clary, 
John Cutter, 
Jonathan Cutter, ^,y^ 
John Button, y^ 
Dea". Stephen Davis, 
Stephen Davis, jun"". 
Benjamin Davis, 
Elijah Davis, 
Silas Davis,' 
Capt. Thomas Fletcher, 
Francis Fletcher, 
Peter Fletcher, 
Samuel Farrar, 
Thomas Farnsworth, 
Henry Fletcher, 
Timothy Farrar, 
William Fletcher, 
Daniel Farnsworth, 
Adam Goold, 
Simeon Goold, 
Nathaniel Goold, 
Isaac How, 
David Hills, 
John Harknees, 



NORTH 


LIST. 








£2 5s. 


10 


Robert Harkness, 


£0 lis 


.0 


2 3 


6 


Charles Hinds, 





8 


3 


2 3 


6 


Samuel Heyward, 


1 


8 


2 


1 11 





Thomas Holt, 





9 


7 


11 


4 


Elisha Hubberd, 





8 


S 


8 


3 


Col. Reuben Kidder, 


4 


7 


3 


9 


7 


Lieut. Benjamin Knowlton, 


3 


4 


3 


8 


3 


Wid^v. Rachel Kidder, 





18 


4 


8 


3 


Thomas Kidder, 





8 


11 


1 12 


5 


Joseph Lowell, 





8 


3 


2 


9 


Daniel Mansfield, 


1 


3 


2 


1 3 


1 


Ezra Mansfield, 





18 


2 


19 


10 


Josiah Melven, 





2 


11 


1 7 


9 


Elijah Morse, 





8 


3 


9 


7 


Joseph Peirce, 





10 


7 


9 


2 


Docf^. John Preston, 


1 


8 


9 


11 


2 


Stephen Parker, 





18 


8 


2 


11 


Paul Prichard, 


3 


5 


9 


10 


3 


Benjamin Pollard, 


1 


2 


11 


3 


5 


Samuel Parker, 


1 





7 


3 


5 


Benjamin Procter, 


1 


6 


7 


4 


1 


Amos Prichard, 





9 


7 


12 


4 


Ezra Peirce, 





8 


3 


8 


3 


Robert Reading, 





13 


9 


8 


3 


Silas Richardson, 





14 


6 


2 18 


1 


Docf. Jesse Rice, 





12 


4 


2 5 


3 


Josiah Robbens, ^ 





11 


2 


1 13 





Josiah Rogers, 


1 


7 


6 


1 5 


9 


Samuel Rogers, 





10 


3 


1 


4 


Ens". Joseph Stevens, 


1 


6 


3 


8 


3 


George Start, 


1 


3 


2 


13 


11 


Lieut. Nathaniel Stone, 


1 


19 


6 


1 15 


3 


Jonathan Stevens, 





8 


3 


8 


3 


Abijah Smith, 


1 


2 


4 


1 5 


8 


William Start, 


1 


1 


5 


1 


4 


William Spear, 


1 


6 


1 


10 


7 


Andrew Spaulding, 





19 





1 


7 


Thomas Stow, 





1 


4 


11 


9 


Joseph Stickney, 





16 


4 


11 


1 


Ezra Town, 


1 


11 


3 


2 7 


11 


Joseph Tucker, 


1 


17 


1 


1 11 


11 


Edmund Town, 





12 


4 


1 14 





Josiah Walton, 





16 


1 


10 


3 


Benjamin Williams, 





11 


2 


1 9 


2 


Timothy Wheelock, 





19 


10 


9 


3 


Samuel Walker, 





9 


7 


1 8 


7 


John Warner, 


1 


5 


8 


8 


3 


Joseph Wright, 





12 





10 


3 


Jonathan Wheat, 





17 


10 


9 


7 


John Flynt, 





8 


3 


1 5 


8 


Samuel Soper, 





10 


5 


18 


1 


Daniel Stratton, 


1 


6 


3 


2 4 





Timothy Spaulding, 





3 


9 


1 13 


5 


Benjamin Smith, 





8 


3 


9 


7 


Total, £106 16s. 


u. 







CHAPTER VI. 



REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY, 1775-76 



PREPARATIONS FOR RESISTANCE; ; MILITARY COMPANIES ; CONCORD 
FIGHT ; RALLY AND MARCH OF THE MEN ; CAPTAIN TOWNE's 
COMPANY ; BUNKER HILL ; DELEGATE TO PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, 
AND INSTRUCTIONS ; COMMITTEE OF SAFETY ; SUPPLY OF SALT ; 
LOYALISTS ; CAPTAIN SMITH's COMPANY J REPRESENTATIVE CHO- 
SEN, AND INSTRUCTIONS. 

The feeling that pervaded the town in this eventful year, 
was first expressed at a meeting holden on the 19th of Janu- 
ary, 1775, when it was " Voted, that Deacon Isaac Appleton 
is chosen to meet with the Deputies of the several towns in 
the Province, at Exeter, on the 23d of January instant, in 
order to choose delegates to represent this Province at an 
American Continental Congress, proposed to be holden at 
Philadelphia on the tenth day of May next. 

" Voted, that said Deputy be empowered to use his endeav- 
ours that the Province be put in a state of defence ; and also 
that the said Deputies do recommend such manual exercise as 
they think proper " 

The annual meeting for the choice of town officers, and the 
last one that was called in " His Majesty's name," was holden 
on the 17th of March, when it was 

" Voted to add One Hundred and a half weight of Powder 
and Three Hundred and a half weight of Lead to the Town's 
Stock. 

"Voted to accept of the Committee of Inspection's report 
with respect to the two shop-keepers. 

" Voted that the Association means that nothing be sold at 
a higher price than they have been for a year past." 

Ephraim Adams, Joseph Bates, Josiah Brown, Isaac How, 



LEXINGTON AND CONCORD ALARM. 73 

John Breed, William Shattuck, Eleazer Cummings, Edmund 
Bryant, and Benjamin Knowlton chosen as the Committee of 
Correspondence and Inspection. 

There were at this period two military companies in town, 
under rather an inefficient organization, one of them com- 
manded by Capt. Charles Barrett, the other by Capt. Francis 
Fletcher. Many were anxious to inform themselves in the 
military art ; and a select company was in the habit of meet- 
ing for exercise and drill, as often as once a week, under the 
direction of Timothy Farrar. 

Thus we see that our forefathers made prompt and efficient 
preparations for the anticipated emergency. 

The spring opened early, and the month of April being more 
than usually pleasant, the farmers had commenced ploughing 
and the various processes of spring husbandry ; but anxiety 
might be seen in many a countenance, and travellers, as they 
passed from one town to another, were eagerly questioned if 
any thing had taken place at Boston, the spot where the whole 
country expected the political drama would soon open. 

It had been ascertained, and the rumor sent to most of the 
towns, in the early part of April, that the commander of the 
British troops then occupying Boston, designed soon to send 
out an expedition into the country, to destroy the military 
stores then deposited in several towns, but mainly at Concord 
and Worcester. Early on the morning of the nineteenth of 
April, this design was executed. A large party of British 
troops advanced to Lexington, where they fired on a company 
of militia, killing eight persons; passing rapidly on, they 
made their appearance at Concord soon after sunrise, and the 
memorable event, known as " Concord Fight," took place. 

By preconcerted arrangements, the Committees of Safety in 
the various towns spread the news in all directions ; and so 
rapidly had messengers sped from town to town, that before 
night-fall not a place within a hundred miles but had heard 
the news, and in many instances with almost every kind of 
exaggeration. 

The intelligence reached this town about two o'clock in the 
afternoon ; the Committee of Safety immediately assembled 
on the common, and fired three guns in quick succession, the 
10 



74 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

signal that had been agreed on m case of a sudden alarm. 
The people rapidly assembled, and in less than two hours a 
great proportion of the male population met on the little com- 
mon in front of the meeting-house. After a short consultation 
with the oldest and most experienced, it was decided to prepare 
as many as possible, and march for Concord. The town's 
stock of powder and lead was taken from the magazine, then 
situated on the beams of the meeting-house, and distributed 
to such as had not a supply, a careful account of it being 
taken by the selectmen. In the mean time, the alarm was 
extending through the remote parts of the towh, and some of 
the men who were at work in the woods or distant fields, did 
not reach the usual training-ground till sunset ; and as pro- 
visions had to be collected, so much time was consumed, that 
probably but few commenced their march before dark. Seve- 
ral parties proceeded as far as Capt. Heald's, where they took 
a few hours repose ; and others spent most of the night in and 
near the middle of the town, but took up their march before 
daylight ; and before the sun rose the next morning, not less 
than a hundred and fifty men, the very bone and muscle of 
the town, were pressing forward, some on foot and some on 
horseback, towards Concord. Provisions were collected, and 
forwarded in carts, under the direction of the Committee of 
Safety. 

Deacon Appleton, like Cincinnatus, had left his plough in 
the furrow at the moment of the alarm, and soon after mount- 
ed his horse and carried the news to Peterborough. The next 
morning a company from that patriotic town, with Capt. 
Wilson in command, passed through New Ipswich, then nearly 
deserted by the men, the Deacon hastening on with them, not 
even stopping to take leave of his family, though he passed 
near his own door. 

It has been stated, that there was but little military organi- 
zation. Timothy Farrar was, perhaps, the most prominent 
man ; and had been the most active in exciting a military 
spirit, though he did not assume any command. Ezra Towne 
was an officer in the militia, but acted as a subaltern on this 
occasion. Capt. Heald was recognized as the commander, and 
paid the bill for the entertainment of the men at Acton, where 



PREPARATIONS FOR RESISTANCE. 7^ 

they arrived and remained during the night of the 20th. On 
the succeeding day they arrived at Concord, where they ob- 
tained reliable information that the enemy had all returned to 
Boston. Many of the elder men, after visiting the scene of 
blood at the North Bridge, returned home, to make the neces- 
sary preparations for a contest, which they now saw was 
inevitable ; and with what feelings we may judge, when we 
consider that the scene of the conflict was the natal soil of 
many of them, and that many of those who had fallen victims 
had been their neighbors and kinsmen. By far the larger 
part, however, proceeded to Cambridge, the Head Quarters of 
the Army. 

Of the names of the men who went on this first alarin^ it is 
now impossible to give an entire list ; it would be enumerat- 
ing almost all who were capable of bearing arms. Several 
years afterwards, ninety-five testified to doing this service ; 
but many others had then died, or had removed elsewhere. 
Reliable statements fix the number at about one hundred and 
fifty. No town, so remote from the scene of action, can boast 
of having sent a larger proportion of its men at so short 
notice. 

On the arrival of our men at Cambridge, they found an 
immense concourse of people, rather than soldiers, most of 
whom were occupying the colleges for temporary quarters. 
At the request of the Committee of Safety, Capt. Towne, on 
the 23d of April, took orders for enlisting a company, and 
immediately notified his townsmen ; and such was their con- 
fidence in him, and in those who were to be associated in office 
with him, that nearly thirty signed his roll that day ; and by 
the 10th of May it was increased to sixty- five in number, in- 
cluding rank and file. Most of these were citizens of New 
Ipswich, only ten being from Peterborough, and a few from 
Mason. All the officers were of this town, and it was called 
the "New Ipswich Company." We annex the Roll of the 
Company. It was procured from the State House at Concord. 
Among them are the names of many who were well known 
by the older residents of the town, and were active in its 
affairs ; though very few of their name, or even of their de- 
scendants, now remain to represent them. 



76 



REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 



PAY ROLL of Capt. Ezra Towne's Company, in Col. James Reed's 
Regiment, to the 1st of August, 1775. 



Ezra Towiie, Captain. 
Josiah Browne, First Lieutenant. 
John Harkness, Second Lieutenant. 
Benjamin Williams, Serjeant. 
Peletiah Whittemore, " 
Elisha Hubbard, 



Samuel Breeding, Serjeant. 
Supply Wilson, Corporal. 
Elijah Morse, " 

Stephen Adams, " 

Jesse Carlton, Drummer. 
Wilder Kidder, Fifer. 



Phinehas Adams, 
Asa Adams, 
Jeremiah Andrew, 
David Avery, 
Timothy Avery, 
John Breed, 
Ebenezer Bullard, 
Peter Brown, 
Benjamin Cutter, 
Archer Churchwood, 
Nathaniel Carlton, 
Elijah Davis, 
Abraham Densmore, 
David Elliot, 
John Elliot, 
Joseph Felt, 
Ezra Fuller, 
Silas Gill, 



PRIVATES. 

Samuel Griffin, 
Samuel Hutchins, 
Daniel Hall, 
Benjamin King, 
Peter Lowell, 
Samuel Mitchel, 
David Melvin, 
David Marshal, 
Farrow Miller, 
Thomas Morrison, 
Aaron Oliver, 
Thomas Pattison, 
Eben. Pratt, 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Jonathan Stevens, 
John Start, 
Ebenezer Severance, 
David Scott, kill'd June 17. 



Abel Severance, 
Benjamin Smith, 
Isaac Stanhope, 
Ephraim Stevens, 
William Scott, 
Daniel Severance, 
Josiah Stone, 
Timothy Sternes, 
Samuel Soper, 
Thomas Tufton, 
Ezra Tovvne, jr. 
John Temple, 
Josiah Walton, 
Nathan Watson, 
Archibald White, 
Daniel White, 
Levi Adams. 

65 Ra7ik and File. 



About the first of June Col. James Reed arrived at Cambridge 
with a commission from the Provincial Congress of New 
Hampshire, to command a regiment of troops of that State. 
The next morning, he says, "he was waited upon by Capt. 
Towne, who introduced to him some other officers command- 
ing companies from this State," and a regiment was soon 
formed, consisting of eight companies, of which Capt. Towne's 
was called the first, and was assigned the post of honor, being 
stationed on the right. As Cambridge was crowded with 
soldiers. Col. Reed marched his regiment to Medford, where 
there was a better opportunity for perfecting in organization ; 
but on the 12th he was ordered, by Gen. Ward, the Com- 
mander-in-chief, to march to Charlestown Neck, to take pos- 
session of the houses there for quarters, to station all neces- 
sary guards at the Ferry, and extend them on to Bunker 
Hill; and on the 14th, Col. Reed issued his regimental orders 
from that place. 

Early on the morning of the 17th of June, the British 
commenced firing, from their ships, on the party of Americans 



BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 77 

who had, the night previous, been engaged in forming 
entrenchments on Breed's Hill, under the command of Col. 
Prescott of Pepperell. As every movement of the British 
Army indicated that a contest between the American detach- 
ment and the British troops would soon take place, Gen. 
Ward had been requested, durmg the morning, to send a rein- 
forcement to the party on the Hill. This he for some time 
hesitated to do, but about ten o'clock issued an order for the 
two New Hampshire Regiments, under Colonels Stark and 
Reed, to make the necessary preparations, and march to the 
Hill. The Regiments being nearly destitute of powder and 
ball, were marched to the building occupied as an Arsenal, 
where each man received a gill cup full of powder, fifteen balls 
and one flint ; the several captains were then ordered to march 
their companies to their respective quarters, and make up 
their powder and ball into cartridges, with despatch. As 
there were hardly two muskets of the same calibre, in any 
company, many of the balls had to be reduced in size ; and as 
but few had cartridge-boxes, they mainly used powder-horns, 
putting their balls either in their pouches or pockets. Not a 
bayonet was to be found in our company, and not a dozen in 
the whole Regiment ; the officers, like the soldiers, each car- 
ried a gun. 

About one o'clock, Col. Stark's Regiment having arrived 
from Medford, joined that of Col. Reed, and both commenced 
their march over Charlestown Neck, exposed to a heavy fire 
of chain and round shot from the British ships and floating 
batteries. But our * men safely crossed it, and, after a rapid 
march, formed on Bunker Hill, having first deposited their 
blankets, coats, and other burdens at the foot of the hill. 

Just previous to the arrival of the New Hampshire Regi- 

*One Peter Lowell, not a native of New Ipswich, who had always be^n the 
greatest braggart in the company, upon reaching the " Neck " where the shot 
were flying, was suddenly taken with a severe belly ache, and asked permission 
to retire; no one listened to his complaint for sometime, but at last Capt. Towne, 
fearing his disorder might become contagious, gave him leave to go — but Peter 
was afraid to go alone, and asked that some one might accompany him. This 
was asking quite too much, and Capt. Towne, drawing his sword, told him if he 
did not instantly scamper he would run him through. Peter took to his heels and 
was never seen in camp afterwards. It was said he never stopped running 
till he reached home. — Lt. Brown's relation to his grandson. 



78 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

ments, some of the Connecticut troops had been employed in 
making a temporary breastwork by planting two parallel 
lines of post and rail fence, commencing near the rear of the 
redoubt, and running down obliquely towards Mystic River, 
the spaces between the fences being filled with new mown 
hay. About four o'clock, the regiment of which our company 
formed a part, took up its position in rear of the rail fence, 
near the redoubt, Col. Starks's being extended farther down 
towards the river. 

The British troops, numbering about three thousand men, 
after a short address from their General, were marched direct- 
ly on towards the American lines, while a heavy cannonade 
from the ships was directed to the redoubt. The regiment of 
Welch Fusileers, the pride of the British Army, advanced in 
column directly in front of the rail fence, where our company 
was posted, and having deployed into line, poured in a very 
heavy and regular fire. A steady and fatal discharge from 
our line was returned, and in the course of ten to fifteen 
minutes the enemy gave way, and retreated, leaving a large 
number of their killed and wounded, many of them near the 
fence. After some manoeuvering on the part of the British, 
they made a second attack, and were again received with the 
same coolness by our troops, who waited till they were suffi- 
ciently near, and then poured in upon them so fatal a fire, that 
they were forced a second time to retreat, in much confusion. 
By this time the scanty supply of ammunition was so reduced, 
that it would not average more than a single charge to each 
man. A strong reinforcement now arrived from Boston ; and 
being fresh troops, they advanced rapidly to our lines. The 
Americans, after employing to the utmost every means of re- 
sistance, Avere overpowered and a retreat was ordered. Capt. 
Towne's company came off" in good order, although exposed 
to a very heavy fire. At this time Josiah Walton received a 
severe wound in his shoulder and neck, which Avas supposed 
to be mortal ; but having been assisted from the field by his 
comrades, he was carried to the camp and finally to Reading, 
and, after much suffering, he was, in about three months, 
able to rejoin his company. 

On their retreat our company found that the old house, near 



EXCITEMENT THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. 79 

the Neck, in which they had left their coats and packs, had 
been set on fire by the hot shot from the British ships, and 
some of the men, among whom was Supply Wilson, ventured 
the attempt to save their packs, and succeeded in bringing 
them off, Avith as many more as they could carry ; the rest 
were burned. Capt. Towne retreated to Prospect Hill, where 
most of the night was spent in throwing up intrenchments. 
Of his company, but one man was killed outright; several 
were wounded, among whom was Asa Adams, who was 
carried from the field by Mr. Wilson and others ; but all are 
believed to have recovered. By the returns, now on file, Capt. 
Towne's Company is reported as having fifty-two men and 
three officers in the field, the remainder did guard duty at 
their quarters ; from the best accounts that have been pub- 
lished, it is stated, that the Americans had not more than 
fifteen hundred men in the action; so that this company 
comprised more than one-thirtieth of the whole force in this 
memorable battle, so important in its immediate and remote 
effects. 

Although by the pay roll it would seem, that this company 
was discharged in the succeeding August, such is not the 
case — they continued to form part of the army employed in 
the Siege of Boston. About the period of its surrender and 
the departure of the British fleet, they were discharged ; and 
returned home, most of them, like their officers, to do fur- 
ther service for their country during the war. 

The news of the Battle of Bunker Hill created a great sen- 
sation through the country. Previous to this event, every man 
had looked forward to a settlement of the existing difficulties 
with the mother country, but now the prospect was changed. 
It was supposed that the British would march out to attack 
our lines at Cambridge, and a company of about thirty in 
number left town immediately, and soon reached the army ; 
but after a short stay, finding their services could be dispensed 
with, they returned home. 

In December, many of the troops engaged in the siege of 
Boston became dissatisfied, and wished to return home. The 
army had been diminished by sickness, and by the expiration 
of the short term for which many of the soldiers had been 



80 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

enlisted. Washington became very much alarmed, and per- 
sonally appealed to the dissatisfied, not to leave him in that 
emergency. Still, numbers returned home, more particularly 
those of the Connecticut Line, who went off in whole detach- 
ments and companies. 

A convention of the officers of the army and leading men 
was held. It was decided to call in the aid of the minute- 
men immediately. Gen. Sullivan wrote to the New Hamp- 
shire Committees of Safety, and said, " I hope the eager speed 
with which the New Hampshire forces will march to take 
possession of and defend our Lines, will evince to the world 
their love of Liberty and regard for their Country. As you 
find the business requires such infinite haste, I must entreat 
you not to give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids 
till the troops are on the march." Couriers were sent out, 
particularly to Hillsborough and Cheshire counties ; and al- 
though it was at a very inclement season, troops turned out 
very freely. On the arrival of the messenger sent to this town, 
a meeting was called, and Capt. Eleazer Cummings, with 
twenty-six men, left immediately for Cambridge. At another 
time eight men, led by John Cutter, joined them, and all con- 
tinued in service till the British left Boston. The alacrity 
with which his call had been responded to, was exceedingly 
gratifying to Washington ; and Gen. Greene wrote to Con- 
gress: "New Hampshire behaves nobly." 

Let us turn once more to note the action of the people at 
home during these exciting times. The summer of 1775 was 
extremely dry and hot, much more so than any since the set- 
tlement of the town; the crops of corn and potatoes were 
much diminished, and in dry land entirely failed ; of hay not 
over half a crop was raised. It was also very sickly. The 
diseases seemed mainly to be dysentery and fevers, which 
were in many cases protracted and severe. The number of 
deaths was large, much larger than had ever before occurred 
in town. Add to all this the absence of so many heads of 
families in the army, and the extreme solicitude on account of 
public affairs, and we may imagine the trials and anxieties of 
this eventful year. 



DELEGATE TO PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. 81 

Town meetings were held in rapid snccession. On the 10th 
of May, the Rev. Stephen Farrar was chosen a Delegate for 
the proposed Congress at Exeter, and the following instruc- 
tions given : 

" 1st. That he use his influence that this Province join with the 
other Colonies in New England in raising their equal proportion of 
men, and defraying the charges of defending their invaluable rights 
and privileges. 

2d. That he use his influence that the Congress procure Arms 
and Ammunition sufflcient for defending the Province, and that a 
suitable Artillery be provided for that purpose ; and in case Powder 
cannot otherwise be speedily provided, that he use his influence that 
the Province stock be proportioned to each town according to their 

pay. 

3d. That he use his influence that for the future the Congress 
set as near the centre of the Delegates as conveniently may be. 

4th. That the Officers of the Army be men that have appeared 
True friends to the Country, and that no suspected person be in- 
trusted in any public office. 

5th. Whereas the times are distressing, and our Expences must 
be very great, that he endeavour that the officers and others that 
may do service for the Province, shall receive but moderate pay for 
their service," &c. 

At this meeting it was " Voted to abate three-fourths of the 
money raised for Highways, and one half of that raised for 
Schools at our Annual Meeting." This measure of econo- 
my had become necessary from the urgent and pressing state 
of public affairs. 

About this time some difficulty seems to have arisen between 
individuals and the Committee of Inspection, Correspondence 
and Safety, so that they declined serving any longer, and a 
new committee was elected, consisting of Ephraim Adams, 
Paul Pritchard, Peter Fletcher, Samuel Whittemore and Jo- 
seph Bates. 

This Committee seems to have been invested with most 
important powers. No State government had as yet been es- 
tablished, and no courts of law were in operation. The fram- 
ing and executing of laws, and the administration of justice, 
and sometimes even the censorship of opinion, seems to have 
been delegated to these committees in the several towns. 
Their duties were arduous and their sessions frequent, to 
11 



82 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

restrain lawless persons, who thought they could conduct as 
they pleased, with regard to persons and property. From 
the resignations and refusals to serve, which are frequently 
recorded, we must infer that their duties were odious as well 
as onerous ; or else that peace and harmony did not always 
reign in their councils. The following will serve as a speci- 
men of the many cases in which the committees were called 
upon to act. 

To the Honorable Gentlemen of the 

Provincial Congress of New Hampshire : 

That whereas Jason Russell and John Tarbell, both of Mason, in 
said Province, did, in a felonious manner, on or about the 20th of 
May last, retire to a pasture in said town belonging to Samuel Dana 
of Groton, and took therefrom a three-year old Heifer, and killed 
and converted it to their own use : Whereupon early notice being 
given to the Committee of said town, they met and required of the 
offenders full satisfaction therefor. But each of them peremptorily 
refusing to comply therewith, — the Advice of the Committees of the 
neighbouring Towns being called in, viz.. New Ipswich and Tem- 
ple, and the criminals being cited to appear before said Committees, 
not only neglected to make their appearance before us, but, as we 
learn, have fled to the Army ; and, finding ourselves unable to set- 
tle the difficulty by reason of their escape, came into the following 
Resolution, viz. — Resolved to refer the matter to your judicious 
consideration, begging that you will in your wisdom take cognizance 
of the offence and deal with them in this and in such like cases for 
the future. Ephraim Adams, Chairman, 

Mason, June 26, 1775. David Blodgett, Scribe. 

[American Archives, Vol. IV.] 

Another example of the duties and powers of the Commit- 
tees of Inspection, is furnished by the following pithy corres- 
pondence. It shows for itself, better than any remarks we can 
olTer at this date, the vigilance and spirit of the times. Look- 
ing calmly at it, at this distance of time, we should judge that 
the transaction originated in excessive zeal and suspicion on 
the part of the Committee ; and that Mr. Hills met the charges 
against him with a good degree of success. At any rate, 
he seems afterwards to have conducted his affairs so much 
to the satisfaction of his townsmen, that he was allowed 
to continue in trade. It was understood at the time, and 
indeed to the end of that century, that traders were authorized 
to receive thirty-three per cent, advance, on the cost of their 



COMMITTEE OF SAFETY AND INSPECTION. 83 

goods, as a fair profit, and no more ; and when any one com- 
plained of prices, it was always satisfactory if the trader 
showed by his bills that he came within that limit. 

[From the Essex (Salem) Gazette of Aug. 24, 1775.] 

In February last, the Committee of Inspection for the town of 
New Ipswich, in New Hampshire, finding Mr. David Hills, a trader 
in said town, had raised the price of some articles of his merchan- 
dise : whereupon said Committee called him to an account, and 
after some debate said Hills promised to adhere strictly to the Asso- 
ciation ; so said Committee received him again. In the beginning 
of the next March, said Hills violated the rules of the Association 
again, in the same manner as before : whereupon said Committee 
called him to account again. Then he said he did not understand 
the Association nor the promises as we did, but for the future he 
would adhere to the Association, and the promise as we understood 
them ; and so was received again. Now he has violated the Asso- 
ciation in like manner a third time, nothwithstanding his promise ; 
so we again examined him, and he owned he had raised his price 
on some articles, viz., fish, salt and rum, and says it is no violation 
of the Association, so refuses to make satisfaction. Now we, the 
Committee, advise all good people to break off" all dealing with him, 
as the Association binds us all to do. 

Per order of the said Committee. 

Joseph Bates, Chairman. 

Neio Ipswich, July 22d, 1775. 

[From the same paper of Sept. 7th.] 

The publication in the Essex Gazette, printed the 24th instant, 
signed " Joseph Bates, Chairman of said Committee," requires this 
piece of Justice to the public and to my character, that some facts 
therein mentioned be rightly stated : The customary price of Salt 
in this town was 4s. per bushel till July last, when the price of carting 
was necessarily raised 5d. or 6d. for want of loading to carry down, 
and near all the salt I have on hand ever since has cost me 3s. 7d. 
per bushel delivered here, and the price complained of 4s. 3d. per 
bushel — so that the advance is 3d., making no allowance for the 
Casks to contain it, waste, &c. I have had license to Sell Rum 
only since November last ; my price has been 2s. 6d. per gallon 
till July last, when I raised to 2s. Sd., which had been the custom- 
ary price here for several years, the Excise on it being 2d. The 
customary price of common Fish is 2d. and 3d. per pound ; this of 
mine is Spring Merchantable Fish, equal in quality to what the 
army is supplied with at 19s. per quintal, and my price for it is 3d. 
per pound. As for what passed in February and March last, see a 
Vote of the town at the Annual meeting on March 15, viz. " Voted 



84 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

to accept of the Committee of Inspection's report with respect to 
the two Shopkeepers." This I carefully say is the true state of the 
case ; and I hereby challenge this Committee and the whole world 
to produce any evidence to the contrary. This, however absurd, is 
less strange, than since it appears that two of the most leading men 
of the committee have declared against the proceedings of the Uni- 
ted American Colonies as being imprudent, and that we had better 
have complyed with the requisitions of the Brittish Parliament. 
Upon principles (it seems) not unlike that, the committee have pro- 
ceeded in the most arbitrary & obstinate manner to publish said 
piece, utterly refusing after repeated intreates to submit to a hear- 
ing of the case before any other committee. Now I desire all peo- 
ple both "good" & bad to treat this committee & their publication 
as they deserve. David Hills. 

New Ipswich, Aug. 30, 1775. 

[From the same paper of Sept. 21st.] 

The piece published on the 7th instant, and signed David Hills, 
which says " the Publication in the Essex Gazette, printed the 24th 
instant, signed Joseph Bates, Chairman, requires this piece of Jus- 
tice to the public and to my character," I observe is just such a 
piece as the tory party have practised to publish, mostly false and 
scandalous, representing things in a false light, when he says the 
carting was necessarily raised ; he hired some teams to carry and 
fetch a load at 8s. 1. m. a Journey, cheaper than the usual price. 
The Salt he mentions he bought at 12s. per Hogshead. The Fish, 
that he says is equal in quality to that the army is supplyed with 
at 19s. per quintal, he purchased at 16s. per quintal, as appears by 
his bill from his Merchant. The Rum he bought a large store of 
at Is. 3d. per gallon, except one load at Is. 9d. per gallon ; and as 
the affairs of the Province are now regulated by Congress, it is sup- 
posed there will be no Excise. It appears said Hills got his goods 
as cheap as usual, if so, I see no reason why he should raise his 
price. I should think it Avould be time enough to raise when his 
goods cost more. 

The report of the committee he refers to, was, that said Hills had 
promised to make restitution to those he had sold to at a higher 
price than his former custom, and that he would adhere to the Asso- 
ciation as the committee understood it. The said Hills and his 
adherents said, the ninth article of the Association means that the 
vendor of goods shall sell at usual profit. The committee said that 
it meant the goods shall sell at their prices. So he complyed, and 
made promise, whereupon the town Voted satisfied with said Hills 
or Shopkeepers. 

All these things I think may be easily proved, notwithstanding 
his bold challenge. On the 29th of August last, we had a full 
town-meeting, which was requested by said Hills and his adherents, 



REPRESENTATIVE. §5 

and the town heard said Hills' complaints against said Committee 
of Inspection, — see Votes of the Town, viz., "Voted to hear the 
complaints of Mr. David Hills against the Committee of Inspec- 
tion;" and afterwards it was "Voted that said Committee have 
gone according to the rules of the Association." 

I would further observe, that the said Hills is the man that had a 
quantity of goods burnt at New York by the good people of that 
city for none of his good conduct in the time of the Stamp Act. 
After the people of this town had unanimously agreed not to use 
any more tea, said Hills brings a quantity into town to sell ; thus it 
appears he, the said Hills, has proved himself guilty of perfidy, and 
that no solemn ties are sufficient to hold him. Considering these 
things, it is not strange that he has published his false piece, say- 
ing, " that two of the most leading men of the committee have de- 
clared against the present proceedings of the United American Col- 
onies as being imprudent, and that we had better have complyed 
with the requisitions of the Brittish Parliment." Can any one sup- 
pose that any person can declare as aforesaid, and then take pains 
to bring people to an adherence to the Association ? 

As for the committee refusing him a hearing before some other 
committee, said Hills never asked it till the paper was in the hands 
of the printer, and then he claimed it as his right, given him by the 
Association. Now if the committee dealing with him as the rules 
of the Association directs, after he had violated them a third time, 
besides his bringing the Tea into town, and refusing to reform, is 
arbitrary, then I know not what Arbitrary is. 

Joseph Bates, Chairman. 

Neio Ipswich, Sept. 13, 1775. 

A town meeting was held on the 27th October, of which 
Mr. William Shattiick was chosen Moderator. It was Voted 
to dismiss the Rev. Mr. Farrar, at his request, from further 
representing this town in the Provincial Congress, and 
the thanks of the town are voted him for his faithful 
services. 

A County Congress had been in session at Amherst, con- 
sisting of delegates chosen from the towns. Benjamin Adams 
represented this town ; but at this meeting he declined serving 
any longer, and was excused. It was then voted not to 
choose another. At another meeting, holden on the 11th De- 
cember, William Shattuck was chosen Representative to the 
Provincial Congress for the ensuing year, and Joseph Bates, 
Benjamin Adams, and Isaac How were chosen to draw up 
Instructions to him, and reported as follows : 



86 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

" 1st. That he use his influence, that the Provincial Congress 
petition the Continental Congress, that the officers of the Army do 
not have such high wages as said Congressmen have appointed, as 
it creates great uneasiness in the minds of the people, and discour- 
ages many of the best principled from engaging in the service. 

2d. That he use his influence that care be taken in appointing 
civil officers, that men be put into office that are of honest princi- 
ples, and not of Arbitrary and Cruel disposition. 

3d. That he use his influence that the people of this Province, 
that went to Cambridge in the time of the invasion in April last, be 
paid for that service according to the method of the Bay Govern- 
ment. And further necessary confidence in his wisdom for what 
may appear Necessary." 

1776. In February of this year a call was made for men to 
reinforce the army attempting the conquest of Canada. Sev- 
enteen men were raised, who proceeded, under Capt. Towne, 
by way of Lake Champlain, as far as St. Johns ; but the fail- 
ure of Arnold's attempt on Quebec, and the retreat from Mon- 
treal, terminated the expedition, and they returned. 

During the spring more troops were wanted for Lake Cham- 
plain ; and Joseph Parker raised eighteen men in town, and 
enough in the vicinity to make up a company, and marched 
for Ticonderoga ; and there, and in the vicinity, they did ser- 
vice through the summer and autumn. 

At the annual town meeting, the following persons were 
chosen the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safe- 
ty : Josiah Brown, James Chandler, Benjamin Gibbs, Thomas 
Brown and Josiah Walton. 

After the Declaration of Independence, which took place on 
the Fourth of July of this year, more stringent measures were 
taken by the ardent patriots against those whom they styled 
tories. In addition to the hatred they had imbibed against all 
who favored the mother country, they were also incited by a 
resolution of Congress, passed in March, in these words : 

"Resolved, That it be recommended to the several Assem- 
blies, Conventions, Councils, or Committees of Safety, imme- 
diately to cause all persons to be disarmed within their respec- 
tive Colonies, who are notoriously disaffected to the cause of 
America, or who have not associated, and refuse to associate, 
to defend by arms the United Colonies against the hostile at- 
tempts of the British fleets and armies." 



TEST PAPERS. 87 

Several of the Governors of the States, Conventions, Coun- 
cils, and Committees of Safety, took immediate measures for 
carrying this resolution into effect. The form of subscription 
was, a recital of the resolution of Congress, and then the pro- 
mise, or pledge, in the following words : 

" In consequence of the above Resolution of the Continental 
Congress, and to show our determinations in joining our Amer- 
ican brethren in defending the lives, liberties and properties of 
the inhabitants of the United Colonies : We, the Subscribers, 
do hereby solemnly engage and promise that we will, to the 
utmost of our power, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, with 
arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and 
armies against the United American Colonies." 

This pledge was forwarded to the Committee of Safety in 
every town, with directions to have it presented to all the 
voters in the place, and to return it to the Committee of Safety 
for the Province, with the signatures, and also a list of all who 
declined to sign. These were called " test papers." Many 
of these documents are still extant in the States Archives ; but 
we have been unsuccessful in our search for the paper sent 
in from this town, a document which at this day would possess 
uncommon interest. 

Perhaps the most rebellious act in the history of the town, 
was one which transpired a few years earlier, and deserves a 
place in this connection. 

A soldier deserted from the British troops stationed at Bos- 
ton, and came to this town. He was employed by a Mr. Ba- 
ker, who then lived on the Stickney farm at the north part of 
the town. His abiding-place was ascertained, and an officer 
was sent to take him ; and had the soldier possessed the pre- 
sence of mind which Mrs. Baker manifested, he might have 
escaped. It was late in the afternoon, and she was heating 
her oven. When the officer came into the house, she at once 
told the deserter to go to the back door, and bring in her oven 
broom, while she was answering the questions of the officer, 
hoping that the soldier would take to the woods and escape. 
But terror overcame him, and he stupidly came back with the 
broom, to be captured. He was taken directly to the tavern 
of Mr. Dix in the middle of the town, which stood where Rev. 



88 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

Mr. Lee's house now is, and confined, and afterwards remov- 
ed to Boston. The inhabitants were so indignant at tlie tav- 
ern-keeper that they burnt him in effigy, removed his sign, 
and hung in its place an offensive substitute, tied a dead dog 
to his door, sung songs, and annoyed him exceedingly, for 
giving aid and comfort to the Britisli ; so that he soon after 
removed from town, and finally left the country. He is named 
in the proscribing act, passed in 1778, and his property was 
confiscated to the State. 

Another instance of patriotic zeal is related by one who took 
part on the occasion. About fifty men went over to Ashburn- 
ham, to take care of a bad tory by the name of Wilder. They 
surrounded his house, and selected a committee of three (Josi- 
ah Brown, Isaac How, and Joseph Bates,) to wait upon him 
in his house. They made him come out and appear before 
the throng. A barrel was placed in the yard with a long bung 
in it. He was ordered to mount it by the bung, but he leaped 
upon the barrel without stepping on the bung, and was in- 
stantly ordered down and made to mount in the way prescrib- 
ed ; and when mounted in order, was required to make some 
confession or promise, which unfortunately is not recorded. 

As an offset to this, the folloAving story is told : A large 
number of people once came from Rindge to tar and feather, 
or otherwise take summary vengeance on some of the tories 
in our town, more particularly Judge Champney. They 
doubtless thought they had as good a right to practise super- 
vision here, as our people had at Ashburnham. But some of 
our best citizens turned out, with Dea. Ephraim Adams at 
their head, and told the Rindge patriots, that before they 
should lay a hand on any of our people, they must have a 
fight ; and that they felt entirely competent to take care of all 
the affairs of the town in their own way. Finding their er- 
rand superfluous, the Rindge people returned home. 

We regret to record, that one man basely proved a traitor 
to his country : Daniel Farnsworth deserted from his com- 
pany and went over to the enemy. He was included in 
the proscribing act of 1778, with the penalty of death if he 
returned. 



PRIVATIONS. . 89 

After the departure of the British from Boston, the seat of 
war was removed to New York ; and the news of disasters 
following fast upon each other, rendered the summer one of 
uncommon gloom and discouragement. The war had now 
been in process long enough to have drawn severely upon not 
only the comforts but the necessaries of life, and pinching want 
was sorely felt. Still the spirit of patriotism and self-denial 
prevailed ; husbands and brothers promptly answered to the 
call for more men ; and wives and sisters with resignation 
and encouragement gave them the parting hand, and supplied 
them with all the comforts which they c5uld command.* 

* The following instance, which occurred just over the borders of the town, is 
only one of hundreds which were of daily occurrence in those times. 

" Late in the afternoon of one of the last days of May, in the year '77, when I 
was a few months short of fifteen years old, notice came to Townsend, Mass., 
where my father used to live, that fifteen soldiers were wanted. The training 
band was instantly called out, and my brother, that was next older than I, was 
one that was selected. He did not return till late at night, when we were all in 
bed. When I rose in the morning, I found my mother in tears, who informed 
me that my brother John w?.s to march next day after tomorrow morning at sun- 
rise. My father was at Boston in the Massachusetts Assembly. Mother said 
that though John was supplied with summer clothes, he must suffer for winter 
garments. There were at this time no stores, and no articles to be had except 
such as each family could make itself. The sight of mother's tears always 
brought all the hidden strength of body and mind into action. I instantly asked 
what garment was needed. She replied, ' pantaloons.' Oh, if that is all, said 
I, we will spin and weave him a pair before he goes. But, said mother, the 
wool is on the sheeps' back, and the sheep are in the pasture. I immediately 
turned to a younger brother and bade him take the salt-dish and call them to the 
yard. Mother replied, poor child, there are no sheep-shears within three miles 
and a half. I have some small shears at the loom, said I. ' But you can't spin 
and weave it in so short a time.' I am certain we can, mother. ' How can you 
weave it ! — there is a long web of linen in the loom.' No matter, I can find an 
empty loom. By this time the sound of the sheep made me quicken my steps 
towards the yard. I requested my sister to bring the wheel and cards while I 
went for the wool. I went to the yard with my brother, and secured a white 
sheep, from which I sheared with my loom-shears half enough for a web ; we 
then let her go with the rest of her fleece. I sent the wool in by my little sister, 
and Luther ran for a black sheep and held her, while I cut oft" wool for my filling 
and half the warp, and then we allowed her to go with the remaining coarse part 

of the fieece." The rest of the narrative the writer would abridge, by 

saying that the wool thus obtained was duly carded, spun, washed, sized and 
dried ; a loom was found not far off, the web "got in " and wove, the cloth 
prepared, cut and made, two or three hours before the brother's departure ; that 
is to say, in forty hours from commencement, without help from any modern im- 
provement. The old lady closed by saying — " I felt no weariness, I wept not, I 
was serving my country, I was relieving my poor mother, I was preparing a gar- 
ment for my darling brother. The garment finished, I retired, and wept till my 
overcharged and bursting heart was relieved." This brother was, perhaps, one 
of Gen. Stark's soldiers, and with such a spirit to cope with, need we wonder 
that Burgoyne did not execute his threat of marching through the heart of 
America ? 

12 



90 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

In October, Capt. Abijah Smith marched towards New York 
with a company from this town, Peterborongli, and the vicin- 
ity. Among them were many of the principal men. The two 
Deacon Adams, Lieut. Stone, Deacon Isaac Appleton, John 
Cutter, Jonathan Kinney, Jonas Diitton, Jeremiah Pritchard, 
and others. They were present at the battle of White Plains, 
but from their position were not much exposed to the fire of 
the enemy. They all arrived home safe before the end of the 
year.* 

Sometime during the autumn, on an alarm from Ticonde- 
roga, Capt. Heald marched with nineteen men. They were 
posted at Mount Independence, and were absent three months. 
They returned home during the ensuing winter. 

At a meeting holden November 25, 1776, William Shattuck 
was again chosen the representative for the ensuing year, and 
the following instructions, reported by a committee, were 
voted to be given him, viz. 

*' 1st. That he shall give constant attendance at the sessions of 
the General Assembly. 

2d. That he use his influence that every collection of freemen 
represented in the Assembly shall, at the conclusion of each session, 
be favored with the proceedings of the Court, which copy shall be 
lodged with the town clerk. 

3d. That an act be passed in the General Court, that no man be 
deemed a voter, in any town meeting, but such as have a sufficient 
resident common interest, with an attachment to the community, 
viz., that he be possessed of a rateable freehold, and that such voter 
shall have a right to be elected a member of the General Assembly 
or any office in this State. 

4th. That each town or collection of freemen (qualified voters) 
have the liberty of sending a representative by themselves, or by 
coupling with any other town or towns, or collections, as they may 
see fit ; provided always, that if any member so elected does not 
represent that number of inhabitants which the court has or may 
prefix for a member, that the operation of the voters shall be in 
proportion to the number they represent. 

5th. That he shall dissent against any proposal, should any such 
be made in Court, for the rendering durable any Constitution or form 

* One of this company told the writer, that it was on this expedition he 
first saw that now almost indispensable article, an umbrella. On their way 
to join the Army they stopped during a rainy day at Worcester, where were 
quartered several British officers, who had been taken prisoners; and one of them 
happened to pass through the street with this, to them, curious contrivance to 
protect him from the rain. 



INSTRUCTIONS. 91 

of government that has been or may be adopted for this State, with- 
out particular instructions thereupon. 

6th. That he shall use his influence that such men be appointed 
officers in this State, both civil and military, as are most noted for 
wisdom and virtue, and best qualified for the respective offices to 
which they are elected, and that all officers be displaced who are 
openly vicious or otherwise wanting in the faithful discharge of the 
trust reposed in them, and that the utmost care be taken to prevent 
vice, extortion and open profanity, too prevalent among us, and es- 
pecially in the military department ; and that some effectual method 
be adopted to prevent the extravagant price for salt and other neces- 
sary articles in the mercantile way ; also that a proper inquiry be 
made into the reason why our soldiery have not had the allowance 
promised by the Congress, and that proper provision has not been 
made for the sick in camps, and allowance for soldiers on their way 
home, and that an effectual remedy be applied by appointing able 
and faithful surgeons and commissaries with a competent supply of 
medicines and other necessaries which may entirely supersede the 
necessity of the hated name of sutler in the camp. 

7th. That he shall endeavor to prevent any man's holding any 
office in the executive, who is a member of the legislative body in 
this State ; also any person holding office which calls him to differ- 
ent studies, or shall interfere one with another. 

8th. That the court call upon the several Colonels in this State, 
for an exact return of all the men in their respective regiments who 
are now, or have been soldiers in the continental or colonial service ; 
with the term they have served, and what corps, that services for 
the future may be just and equitable. 

9th. That some method may be taken by the court to prevent 
any person being held a slave, except in case of forfeiture or volun- 
tary surrender of his liberty. 

10th. That he endeavour that an exact entry be made of yeas 
and nays, in all matters of importance, on the Journal of the House, 
and enter his protest against any vote that may pass in the Assem- 
bly contrary to his Instructions, (or in matters where he is not in- 
structed,) contrary to his mind. 

11th. That an act pass the Assembly, to compel every able- 
bodied man to do a turn in the war when legally called upon. 

12th. That no person be put in office upon the recommendation 
of any person, without the strongest assurance of his impartiality, 
and of the qualification of the person appointed ; and that each 
regiment in the continental or colony service be provided (by the 
court) with faithful and able chaplains and necessary officers ; and 
that a proper inquiry be made into each man's behaviour in office." 

Such instructions may, at the present day, appear unmean- 
ing or trivial. It is now very easy to organize a State, and 



92 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

to put in operation a government which shall duly protect the 
lives and property of all living under it. But let us not forget 
that then, all the powers and privileges of a power strong 
enough to protect, yet too weak to oppress, had to be pondered 
and determined. There was no model for any such form of 
government. The passage of such instructions as the above, 
and the debates to which they undoubtedly gave rise, must 
have done much to instruct and prepare the people for repub- 
lican institutions ; and it was in the town corporations then 
peculiar to New England, those miniature republics, and in 
their town meetings, that many of the first principles of a free 
government were discussed and settled. There is ample evi- 
dence that the instructions and resolutions from New Ipswich, 
dictated and guided, as they were, by those who afterward 
held distinguished positions in the political and judicial affairs 
of the State, were listened to with interest, and exercised no 
inconsiderable influence in the organization of the State Gov- 
ernment. 



CHAPTER VII 



REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY, 1777-80 



TOWN MEETING ; ENLISTMENT FOR THREE YEARS ; TICONDEROGA ; 

HUBBARDSTON ; BENNINGTON ; CAPTAIN PARKER's COMPANY ; 

DRESS AND EQUIPMENTS ; PAY ROLL ; TAKING OF BIIRGOYNE ; 
COOS ALARM ; AVERAGE OF SERVICE. 

The State Government having gone into operation, the An- 
nual March meeting was this year called " In the name of the 
Government and People of the State of New Hampshire." It 
was " Voted to have five Selectmen this year, but they are not 
to he exempted from doing their proportion in the war." Five 
men were chosen as a Committee of Inspection, Correspond- 
ence and Safety, viz., Thomas Heald, Nathaniel Stone, Ben- 
jamin How, Isaac Appleton, and Ephraim Adams. 

It was voted, that the persons going to Cambridge at the 
time of Concord Fight, and the Provisions carried and sent at 
that time, be proportioned by the Committee with the other 
service done in the war. Also voted, that those persons, ex- 
cepting such as are in the army, who refuse to return the am- 
munition which they have drawn out of the town stock, shall 
have the Powder charged to them at two dollars per pound, 
and other articles in proportion, and that this shall be put into 
their Rate at the next assessment. Voted, that the Selectmen 
buy guns for those that are destitute. 

Early in the spring, the people of New England were filled 
with consternation at the accounts received of the overwhelm- 
ing army that was advancing from Canada towards Albany, 
under Gen. Burgoyne. The first direct call for soldiers came 
in April, under the new law requiring enlistments for three 
years ; and twenty-two men were required from this to\vn. 



94 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

A meeting was called, when it was "Voted to have the two 
captains of the companies make out the lists and raise the 
men, and that the town pay in money one hundred dollars for 
each man wanted." 

The small pox was introduced into town by a soldier from 
the army, and several took it, of which two or three died, and 
were buried near the brick school-house in the South District. 
It was voted to take all prudent care to prevent its spreading, 
and to prosecute all persons who shall offend in this affair. 

In April an order came for soldiers, to proceed to strengthen 
the army under Gen. St. Clair, at Ticonderoga, and a com- 
pany of twenty-four men was raised, under Capt. Josiah 
Brown, who soon reached Ticonderoga, where they remained 
six weeks, and were discharged. No very important opera- 
tions had then taken place there ; but they had scarcely reach- 
ed home, when the news of the capture of Crown Point, by 
Burgoyne, and his investment of Ticonderoga came, with an 
urgent request for men. Capt. Brown promptly responded, 
and with a company of forty-eight men started at once for the 
seat of operations ; a considerable part of them went on horse- 
back, and followed the practice of '• ride and tie," that is, a 
number of men, equal to the number of horses, mount, and pro- 
ceed a few miles, and then tie the horses and walk on, while 
the party in the rear come up, and mount and ride on about 
an equal distance. By thus alternating, the men were able to 
make much more speed, and, on arriving at their destination, 
were not worn down by fatigue. On their arrival at Charles- 
town, on Connecticut river, about the 1st of July, they were 
met by an express, who informed them that Gen. St. Clair 
had resolved to abandon Ticonderoga, and that all the troops 
on the way there could return home. But the energy with 
which Burgoyne pursued our retreating army, their defeat 
and confusion at the battle of Hubbardston, soon altered the 
face of things ; another express overtook them before they had 
reached home, with orders for them to advance again. Some 
of them, wishing first to visit their families, came home, but 
twenty-six of them again marched for the seat of war and 
were employed about one month. The party of twenty-two, 
who had enlisted in the month of April for three years, were 



CAPTAIN PARKER'S COMPANY. 95 

engaged at the battle of Hubbardston, Among these were 
Daniel Foster, and his nephew Ebenezer Fletcher, who was 
severely wounded and taken prisoner ; his touching narrative 
of his sufferings and escape has been extensively read. 

The town which, since April, had been in a constant state 
of inquietude and alarm, from the numerous calls for, and 
marching of soldiers, was soon 'to be taxed still further, to 
resist the rapid progress of Burgoyne, and its darkest day of 
trial seemed to have come. Early in July, Capt. Stephen 
Parker, then residing in the westerly part of the town, enlisted 
a large company, of which over fifty were of New Ipswich, 
and the rest from Peterboro', with a few from Temple and 
Striptown. 
^ A venerable octogenarian has given us a graphic sketch of 
their appearance, as he saw them when they commenced 
their march, which we here record. 

To a man, they wore small-clothes, coming down and 
fastening just below the knee, and long stockings with 
cowhide shoes ornamented by large buckles, while not a pair 
of boots graced the company. The coats and waistcoats 
were loose and of huge dimensions, with colours as various 
as the barks of oak, sumach and other trees of our hills and 
swamps, could make them, and their shirts were all made 
'of flax, and like every other part of the dress, were home- 
spun. On their heads was worn a large round top and broad 
brimmed hat. Their arms were as various as their costume ; 
here an old soldier carried a heavy Queen's Arm, with which 
he had done service at the Conquest of Canada twenty years 
previous, while by his side walked a stripling boy, with a 
Spanish fuzee not half its weight or calibre, which his grand- 
father may have taken at the Havana, Avhile not a few had 
old French pieces, that dated back to the reduction of Louis- 
burg. Instead of the cartridge box, a large powder horn was 
slung under the arm, and occasionally a bayonet might be 
seen bristling in the ranks. Some of the swords of the officers 
had been made by our Province blacksmiths, perhaps from 
some farming utensil ; they looked serviceable, but heavy and 
uncouth. Such was the appearance of the Continentals to 
whom a well-appointed army was soon to lay down their arms. 



96 



REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 



After a little exercising on the old Common, and performing 
the then popular exploit of "whipping the snake/^ they 
briskly filed off up the road, by the foot of the Kidder Moun- 
tain, and through the Spafford Gap, towards Peterboro', to 
the tune of "Over the Hills and far away." 

The annexed is the roll of the company, procured at 
the State House in Concord. Those who were from the 
neighboring towns have the letter P or T attached. It 
will show that several belonged to it who afterwards became 
distinguished in public and private life, among whom was 
Jeremiah Smith, then but sixteen years old, afterwards cele- 
brated as a Judge, and Governor of the State, who left home 
without his father's knowledge, and presented himself to 
Capt. Parker for enlistment. From that interesting book, the 
history of his life, we are indebted for some of the movements 
of this company. 



PAY ROLL of Capt. Stephen Parker's Company, in Col. Moses 
Nichols' Regiment, and Gen. Stark's Brigade of JVew Hampshire Mil- 
itia, which Company inarched from, JVew Ipswich {and joined the Conti- 
nental Army under Gen. Gates at Stillwater) 19th July, 1777. 



Stephen Parker, Captain. 
Benja. Craggiri, t. First Lieutenant. 
Samuel Cunningham, p. " 

Benjamin Williams, Ensign. 
Benja. Ryan, p. Sergeant. 
John Robb, p. " 

Archibald White, " 



Allen Breed, 
Allen Breed, Juu. 
Saml. Walker, 
Benjamin SafTord, 
Josiah Walton, 
David Rumrill 
Pelatiah Whittemore, 
Peter Fletcher, 
Ephraim Stevens, 
Jona. Parker, 
Richard Wheeler, 
Amos Wheeler, 
Wm. Upton, 
Edmund Savvtel, 
Nehemiah Stratton, 
John Knight, 
Jotham Hoar, 
Francis Appleton, 
Ebenezer Severance, 



Saml. Mitchel, p. Sergeant. 
Whitcombe Powers, Corporal. 
Ephraim Brown, " 

Thomas Morrison, p. " 

Saml. Lewis, " 

Saml. Lowell, Drummer. 
Simeon Ilildreth, Fifer. 



privates. 
James Foster, 
Caleb Bancrof, 
Paul Powers, 
John Everet, 
Samuel Wheeler, 
Peter Wheeler, 
Daniel Foster, 
Richard Stickney, 
Nat Shattuck, 
Needham Drury, 
Benja. Severance, 
Levi Spaulding, 
Henry Spaulding, 
Eli Adams, 
Abel Dutton, 
Benja. Dunn, p. 
Ephraim Brockway, p. 
Jeremiah Proctor, p. 
Asa Brockway, p. 



Jesse Smith, p. 
James Mitchel, p. 
John Blair, p. 
Benja. Mitchel, p. 
Wm. Robbe, p. 
Thos. Little, p. 
Sargent Paige, p. 
Simpson Hogg, p. 
Jeremiah Smith, p 
James White, p. 
Charles McCoy, p 
Wm. Blain, p. 
Saml. Miller, p. 
Wm. Moore, p. 
Joseph Heald, 
John Steward, p. 
Silas Taylor, 
Abraham Taylor, 
Isaac Barret, p. 



SKIRMISH. 97 

To amount of wages, -------- ^484 4 5 

To two journeys from New Ipswich to Exeter, to get the 

Roll passed, 12 days, at 8s. per day, - - - £4 16 

Roll and Copy, -------- 14 

£6 

To one day's provisions for Forty men, on their return 

from Halfmoon, Aug. 16th, where we had been to 

Guard Provisions, which I purchased of the Inhabitants, 2 

This is a true Account and Roll, £492 4 5 

Attest, Stephen Parker, Captain. 

In Committee on Claims, Exeter, Feb. .5th, 1778. — This Account and Roll, 
the balance of which amounts to Four Hundred ninety-two pounds four shillings 
and five pence, is right Cast. J. Oilman. 

Feb. 5th, 1778. — Captain Stephen Parker appeared, and made solemn oath to 
the truth of this Roll Before M. Weare, Jus. P. 

October nth, 1778. — Rec'd on Order on the Treasurer for four hundred and 
sixty pounds in part of this Roll, and on the fifth day of February 1778, Rec'd an 
Order fr the Treasury for Thirty-two pounds four shillings & five pence in full 
for the balance. Stephen Parker, Captain. 

The following adventure relative to this company, was 
told by Judge Smith some years ago, to his friend the Hon. 
S. D. Bell, who committed it to paper, and to his kindness 
we are now indebted for it. " Capt. Parker's company, to 
which I belonged, was ordered on a scout and soon marched. 
Being pretty ambitious, I got a place in the advanced guard 
which consisted of six men, who kept some rods in advance 
of the main body. After marching some miles in the woods, on 
a very warm day, we came to a brook and a bridge over it ; 
most of the company, and I among the rest, left the ranks and 
went to the brook to fill our canteens. A few moments only 
had passed, when we were startled by a sudden fire of mus- 
ketry in our front, and saw the other five of the advanced 
guard (who had continued to proceed on) all cut down. The 
company was formed in a moment, and a charge made across 
the bridge, and the enemy fled with great haste into the 
woods, leaving their provisions and baggage. It seemed the 
enemy, about an equal force to ours, were also upon a scout ; 
they had notice of our approach and placed themselves in 
ambuscade. A heavy log fence on the left of the road reached 
from the bridge some distance, and they were concealed behind 
it, and were ordered to fire as soon as the front ranks of our 
company should pass their left. The advanced guard, and the 
13 



98 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

breaking of our ranks for water, which had not been foreseen, 
defeated the enemy's plan, which they could not countermand 
without being discovered. Only the five men of the advanced 
guard were in front of the ambuscade, and they all fell, riddled 
with balls. Four of them were instantly killed ; the fifth, a 
Mr. Robb of Peterboro', was very severely wounded, but ulti- 
mately recovered and lived many years — and, added Judge 
Smith, I had the pleasure, when in Congress many years after- 
wards, to aid in obtaining for him a pension." As no date or 
location was given in the above relation, it is not now known 
where this skirmish occurred, but probably not far from the 
Hudson river, and doubtless previous to the Battle of Ben- 
nington, which took place August 17, in which this company 
was actively engaged throughout the day. During the night 
of the battle they assisted in guarding the Hessian prisoners, 
who were confined in the Bennington meeting-house. From 
the pay roll it seems the company was discharged about the 
20th of September. 

The fortunate issue of the Battle of Bennington gave great 
encouragement to our Province ; but the calls for men were, if 
possible, more pressing than before. In the month of August 
an alarm came that the British had sent out a detachment 
from Canada, and that they had already reached " the Coos." 
It originated in the capture of a tory in Vermont, who had in 
his possession letters in which Burgoyne proposed a plan to 
send three detachments to ravage the towns on Connecticut 
river. It turned out to be a mere I'use of the enemy to divide 
our forces. Eleven went on this alarm, with William Clary 
at their head, and were absent about a month. 

In September, a company of forty-two men was raised, in 
which Simeon Gould was an officer, and hurried off" in great 
haste. Part of the men had horses, and no doubt practised 
" ride and tie." They arrived in time to take part in the bat- 
tles at Stillwater and Saratoga, and to witness the surrender 
of Gen. Burgoyne and his whole army ; an event every where 
received with joy and satisfaction, more especially by the 
people of New England, who were thereby relieved from the 
fear of impending invasion. 

At a town meeting holden Dec. 9th, Nathaniel Stone was 



AVERAGE OF SERVICE. 99 

chosen as representative for the ensuing year, and the follow- 
ing instructions were voted to be given him : 

" 1st. That the act for calling in this State's money, and giving 
notes on interest for the same, be repealed, and that said money all 
be called in and burnt in the two years 1777 and 1778. 

2d. That the Continental Soldiers' wages, clothing, &c., be made 
as good to them as was promised to them, notwithstanding the depre- 
ciation of money. 

3d. That the time be stated for talcing the Invoice on the tenth 
day of June ; so that the Cattle brought from the Massachusetts 
State into this, to pasture, may be included. 

4th. That he enter his dissent against any vote that may pass in 
matters of importance contrary to his instructions, or that appear to 
him not for the public good. 

5th. That those towns that have not provided their proportion of 
men for the public service, be called upon to send forth their num- 
ber in full, and that the towns that have sent their proportion be 
not called on till the delinquents have furnished their full number. 

6th. That every session he bring, in print, the minutes of the 
Journals of the House, and lodge them with the Town Clerk, and 
that every member do the same." 

As the taking of Burgoyne had relieved this part of the 
country from any immediate danger from the enemy, they 
began to talk of settling with the soldiers for their services. 
Accordingly a Committee was chosen to " average the ser- 
vices done in the war." Their report was as follows, all 
which the town voted to pay : 

" That those that went in the service at Cambridge eight months 
be allowed for five months. That those that went to Ticontiroga 
for five months, be allowed five months. That those who went the 
two other short terms to Cambridge, be allowed in the same pro- 
portion as those that went eight months. 

That those that went the Canada voyage be allowed for fourteen 
months. 

That those who went to Coos the three months term, be allowed 
for one month. 

That those who went to New York the first time, be allowed for 
six weeks. 

That those who went to New York the second time, be allowed 
for six weeks. 

That those that went to Ticondiroga in the fall of 1776, be allow- 
ed six weeks. 

That the three years men be allowed as many months as gone. 

That those that went on the last alarm, be allowed 43 days. 



100 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

That those that went on the alarm when Ticontiroga was given 
up, be allowed one month. 

That those that went to Bennington be allowed two months. 

That those that went to the taking of Burgoyne, be allowed two 
months. 

And that all the above services done by the inhabitants of the 
town, be set at forty shillings per month, and that the Selectmen 
make a rate to pay the above services, and that those persons that 
have performed service bring in their accounts to the Selectmen by 
the first day of January next, and that the Cambridge average, 
made at a former time, be assessed the same as others. 

It was also voted to pay for the Pork and other provisions, that 
the Selectmen sent to the men that went on the alarm to Concord." 

1779. A number of men joined the expedition under Gen. 
Sullivan to Seneca Lake, which resulted in great disaster to 
the Indians there. 

In March it was "voted that there be a contribution taken 
up, to defray the charges of bringing Ephraim Foster home 
from the army, and also for the benefit of the poor of the 
town." 

At this time the British held possession of part of Rhode 
Island, and a company of thirty-one men under Capt. Joseph 
Parker proceeded to Providence, and afterwards to the Island. 
It is not known whether or not they fought in the engage- 
ments there. 

It would appear that several parties went to Rhode Island 
while it was invested by the British ; for, in the following 
August, when a committee was appointed to make another 
average of the services of the inhabitants in the war, their 
report was, " That those who went to Rhode Island the first 
term be allowed for six months ; and those who went the 
second term be allowed three weeks ; and those who went the 
last term be allowed six months." 

In obedience to another call in August, it was voted " to 
Hier six men to go in the Continental Army, agreeable to the 
requisition of the Court." 

In June, 1780, a call for six men for the Continental Army 
was made. A meeting was called, and it was " Voted that the 
Selectmen and the Captains of the two Train Bands be a com- 
mittee to hire the six men for the Town, in the cheapest and 
most expeditious way they can." 



LEVIES AND ENLISTMENTS. 101 

In July a demand was made on the town for their propor- 
tion of beef for the army. It was accordingly " voted to raise 
Fifty-five Thousand Pounds, lawful money,* to procure Beef 
for the Army, and to pay Soldiers now gone." It was also 
voted, that any person might pay his rates, in silver, at sev- 
enty-five for one ; which shows the depreciated state of the 
currency at this period. 

The next year it was "Voted to raise £400 Silver Money, 
for to pay for this Town's proportion of Beef rate for the 
Army," and the Constables were authorized to receive the old 
rates, on the scale -of one silver dollar to ninety of paper. 

In Feb. 1781, a meeting was held to raise twelve men for 
the Continental Army, who had been called for to fill up the 
quota assigned to the State. These were raised by dividing 
the town into twelve classes, as recommended by the General 
Court ; each class to furnish a man, by hireing, or otherwise. 

In November, a call was made for Militia men, and the 
Selectmen proceeded to hire them on the best terms they 
could. The town "Voted to approve of the Selectmen hireing 
the three months militia, and also to procuring this town's 
proportion of Rum." It is supposed that nine men went at 
this time to West Point, of whom Isaac How was the leader. 

"Voted to pay those men who went on the late alarm 
for Coos." A small party of British soldiers made an incur- 
sion into Vermont, and at Newbury had captured a Colonel 
Johnson, and carried him to Canada. An alarm was made 
in this region, and Capt. Heald, with quite a number of men, 
were soon on their way thither ; they were absent but a short 
time. 

January, 1782, Voted that the Selectmen shall procure cloth- 
ing for the former Continental Soldiers, against the next Town 
meeting, if they can. 

Six men were raised this year for the continental service ; 
one of these was Mr. John Gould, who still survives, probably 
the only person from this town, now living, who was engaged 
in military operations during the war. 

During this Summer or Autumn, a party of Tories from 

* This would be equivalent, in silver, to .fi733 .33. 



102 



REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 



Canada, made an irruption into Vermont, and proceeded as 
far as Royalton. It was supposed they were the vanguard of 
a large detachment, sent to lay waste the Towns on Connec- 
ticut River. An alarm was sent to this town, and a large 
company of sixty-five men marched immediately, but were 
absent only a few days. This was the last alarm that ever 
came for soldiers. The capture of Cornwallis, with his army, 
nearly closed the active operations of the Revolution. 

Of the persons who were Officers or Soldiers in the service 
during the war, it is to be regreted that no entry was ever 
made on the Town Records, that thereby their names might 
have been preserved. We have already given two extensive 
rolls ; and, after a thorough investigation, we think the sub- 
joined list will contain the largest part of those who served 
three years or more, besides those already named, but not all. 

Jonas Adams, 
Levi Adams, 
John Adams, 
Phinehas Adams, 
Stephen Adams, 
Peter Bullard, 
John Bullard, 
Amos Baker, 
Joel Baker, 
Wm. Scott, 
Jesse Walker, 
Wm. Hewitt, 
Joseph Procter, 
John Thomas, 
Samuel Potter, 
Silas Whitney, 
Ezra Meriam, 
-Ephraim Foster, 
Nathaniel Hays, 
Silas Gill, 
Nehemiah Stratton, 

In addition to these were all those who turned out on the va- 
rious alarms, on the requisition of the Committee of Safety, 
making in all something like 360 enlistments, in numbers 
varying from three to forty-eight men at a time, and for peri- 
ods of from one month to three years. Nearly every man, 
from the highest to the lowest, sooner or later took his turn, 
or hired some one as a substitute. 

Of all these men, but one or two were killed in battle ; eight 
or ten were very severely wounded, among whom were Josiah 



Ithamar Wheelock, 
Rawlins Coburn, 
Saml. Foster, 
Asa Perham, 
Wm. Prichard, 
John Yoman, 
Ephraim Severance, 
Moses Farnsworth, 
Ebenezer Fletcher, 
Ashel Powers, 
David Melvin, 
Jonathan Davis, 
Lt. Nathan Wesson, 
Thomas Kidder, 
Asa Severance, 
Isaac Taylor, 
James McGensey, 
Joel Barker, 
Bunker Clark, 
James Whipple, 



Hezekiah Sawtelle^ 
Jona. Parker, 
Hezekiah Wetherbee, 
Zebedee Whitemore, 
Samuel Walker, 
Joshua Davis, 
Eleazer Bullard, 
John Thomas, 
Joel Proctor, 
James Tidder^ 
Henry Knowlton, 
John Brown, jr. 
Jonathan Wheat, 
Isaac How, 
Stephen Hildreth, 
Lt. Jeremiah Prichard, 
Lt. Peletiah Whittemore, 
Samuel Cummings, 
Whitcomb Powers, 
William Hunt. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WAR. 103 

Walton, Ebenezer Fletcher, Jeremiah Prichard and Jonas 
Adams ; and about twenty died of sickness in the army, or 
soon after they were brought home, of whom were John Adams, 
Simeon Hildreth, Daniel Hall, Samuel Campbell, Jonathan 
Wheat, Samuel Foster, Ephraim Foster and Asa Perham. 
Quite a number of them had contracted habits incident to the 
camp, which materially affected their respectability and success 
in after life. 

The country was drained of all its available means by con- 
tinual heavy taxes, that were almost constantly levied, in one 
shape or another, to carry on the contest. The proportion of 
this town, in a Province Tax of £1000, was in 1773, £13 
Is. ; only sixteen towns paid more. In 1777, it was £12 
lis. 6d. ; only ten towns paid more. In 1780 it was £12 5s. 
2d. In 1781 an act was passed to raise a quantity of Beef 
for the army ; the proportion levied upon this town was 17,164 
pounds ; only twelve towns furnished a larger quantity. A 
levy was made by the State for 10,000 gallons of Rum ; this 
town's part was 122 gallons. 

In 1781, Congress called on this State for 1354 men, for the 
Continental Army; our proportion was 17 men, which were 
promptly furnished. From this it is probable that this town 
was relied on, and did supply, a fraction over one-eightieth of 
all the men and other means raised by this State during the 
Revolutionary War. All the requisitions were supplied fully 
and promptly. In 1782, a list was made out by the Legisla- 
ture of the deficiencies of the several towns ; and while there 
were great delinquencies in some places. New Ipswich was 
found deficient two men only, which were immediately sup- 
plied. 

One of the principal embarrassments during the war arose 
from the rapid and enormous depreciation of the Paper Cur- 
rency of the country. Various attempts were made to fix 
some permanent value to it. In September, 1779, a Conven- 
tion was held at Concord, at which Timothy Farrar was a 
delegate, for the purpose of regulating the prices of staple arti- 
cles of produce and merchandize, but without the least relief. 
In 1781, the Legislature took the matter in hand, and prepared 
what was called " the authorized scale of depreciation," ac- 



104 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

cording to which contracts made at different periods might be 
equitably adjusted. A copy of it was sent to this, and proba- 
bly to all other towns in the State. It indicates the compar- 
ative value of £100 at different periods. 

1777. 1778. 1779. 1780. 1781. 



January, 


£104 


325 


742 


2934 


7500 


February, 


410 


350 


868 


3322 


7500 


March, 


106 


375 


1000 


3739 


7500 


April, 


110 


400 


1104 


4000 


7500 


May, 


114 


400 


1215 


4800 


7500 


June, 


120 


425 


1342 


5700 


12000 


July, 


125 


450 


1477 


6000 




August, 


150 


475 


1630 


6300 




September, 


175 


500 


1800 


6500 




October, 


275 


545 


2030 


6700 




November, 


300 


634 


2308 


7000 




December, 


310 


620 


2393 


7300 





Thus it will be seen, that in January 1777, £104 lawful 
was equal to £100 silver ; but by July 1781, it had depre- 
ciated so that £12,000 was only equal to that amount. 

On the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the debts of 
all the several States were assumed by the General Govern- 
ment, and Commissioners were appointed in this State, of 
which Woodbury Langdon was Chairman, to examine the 
accounts of the various Towns for payments made to Soldiers 
during the war, besides what had been received from the 
Continental or Province Treasury. The following account 
was drawn up for this town, and with its vouchers was 
duly forwarded to the Commissioners. It will be seen that 
the only charges made are for bounties paid, and for horses 
lost in the various campaigns in which they were engaged. 

The State of New Hampshire 

to The Tovm of New Ipswich, Dr. 

1777. £. s. d. 

To the bounties given 36 men that went to Cambridge in 1775, at 

;E10 each man, . . . . . . . 360 

To the bounties given 19 men that went to Tycontaroga and served 

five months, at £10, and Individuals a bounty of j£l2, . . 202 

To the bounties given to 35 men, that went two short turns to 

Cambridge, . . . . . . . 87 10 

To the bounty given to 11 men that went to Canada, at £28 each 

man, ........ 478 

To the bounties given to 11 men that went to Coos three months, 22 
To the bounties given 12 men that went to New York six weeks, 

first time, . . . . . . . 36 . 



BOUNTIES TO SOLDIERS. 105 

To bounties given 6 men that went to New York, . . j£l8 Os. 

To the bounty given 20 men that went on the alarm to Ticontaro- 

ga, six weeivs in the fail of 1776, . . . . 60 

To bounties given 24 men that went on the last alarm, 43 days, . 72 
To bounties given 48 men that went on the alarm when Tyconta- 

roga was given up, one month's pay, each, being 40s. . . 90 

To the bounties given 37 men that went to Bennington, £4 each 

man, . . . . . . . . 148 

To bounties given 42 men that went when Burgoyne was taken, 

50s. each man, ....... 105 

To bounties given 31 men that went to Rhode Island three weeks, 46 10 
To bounties given 3 men that went to Rhode Island six months, . 90 
To bounties given 6 men to join the Continental army, at £30 

each man, ....... 180 

1780. 
To bounties given 9 three-months men, that went to West Point, 148 10 
To bounties given 65 men that went to Royalston, at 6s. per man, 52 

1777. 
To bounty paid 18 men, at £30 each, .... 540 

1781. 
To bounty paid 8 men, at £90 each, .... 720 

To bounties paid 14 men, at different times, (names omitted,) . 737 4 
To a bounty given to 96 men that went to Concord on the alarm in 

1775. . . . . . . . . 30 



Total, . . £4127 19 
New Ipswich, 7 Dec. 1787. — A true Copy according to Vouchers. 



Attest, Seth Wheeler, 



Eph'm Adams 



, Jr. 5 



Selectmen. 



To this account was annexed the necessary vouchers, of 
which the following are specimens : 

"Hillsborough County, Deer. 3d, 1787. — Then personally appeared Joseph 
Parker, and made oath, that as a Captain he went in 1776 to Ticontaroga, in the 
five-months service with eighteen men, and received twelve pounds eacli as a 
bounty from Individuals, besides what New Ipswich gave as a town. 

Signed, John Preston, Justice Peace." 

" Simeon Gould appeared and made oath, that he with forty-one men from 
New Ipswich, went into the service when Burgoyne was taken; and also he went 
with five men to New York in December 1776, for three months. 

Timothy Farrar, Justice Peace." 

" We, Francis Fletcher, Francis Appleton, and Jonas Woolson, of Lawful 
age, testify and say, that we went as Volunteers into the army under the Com"! 
of CoK Tho'. Heald at the time Gen'. Burgoine was taken prisoner, and that 
Each of us lost a Horse at that time which we have not since beared of. 

Francis Fletcher, 
Francis Appleton, 
Jonas Woolson." 

"Hillsborough, ss. June 28th, 1791. — Then appeared the above-named Fran- 
cis Fletcher, Francis Appleton and Jonas Woolson, — made solemn oath to the 
truth of the foregoing deposition by them subscribed. 

Before me, Tim". Farrar, Justice Peace." 

14 



106 REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY. 

" I, Joseph Parker, of lawful age, testify and say, that I was One of three 
apprisers appointed by the select Men of the Town of New Ipswich to apprise 
the above mentioned Horses the next year after they were lost, and that I then 
had sum Remembrance of their Value, and that we ail agreed to Value the same 
as follows, viz., Francis Fletchers and Jonas Woolsons twelve pounds each, and 
Francis Appletons at fifteen pounds in hard money ; and we also appraised a 
horse belonging to Cap^ Charles Barrett, which was lost in the service, at twelve 
pounds like money. Joseph Parker." 

" Received of my honored father, Paul Pritchard, thirty pounds lawful, for 
which I promise to serve three years in the Continental Army ; I say received 
per me, William Pritchard." 

During the last years of the War the people suffered very 
much for want of many articles, which, owing to the long 
continuance of the War could not be had at any price. Of 
Salt and Iron scarcely any could be had ; no articles of cloth- 
ing were worn but such as could be made in town, except 
those that had been on hand for years. Herbs generally 
supplied the place of tea. Molasses was often made by boil- 
ing cider, and was sometimes extracted from cornstalks. 
Maple trees afforded a partial supply of Sugar, but for Iron 
no substitute could be found. Cart wheels were often made 
by sawing off a section of about a foot in length from a large 
maple or oak log, and cutting a hole in the centre. Ploughs 
were often constructed entirely of wood. Leather breeches 
were much worn ; in a .Journal kept by Judge Champney, he 
speaks of purchasing a suit of Moose-skin for each of his sons. 

The following shows the population at the end of the War : 

" Agreeably to directions from the Council and House of Repre- 
sentatives, upon June 20th, 1783, we have taken the number of our 
Inhabitants, Buildings, Land, &c., which is as follows, viz. : 

206 Rateable Polls. 120 Dwelling Houses. 

1033 White Inhabitants. 116 Barns and other Buildings. 

2 Black " 19,000 Acres of Land. 

James Horsley, ^ 
Paul Prichard, > Selectmen. 
Sep. 5, 1783. Ephr'm Adams, Jr. ) 



CHAPTER VIII 



STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS, 



STATE CONSTITUTION ; CONVENTION AT CONCORD ; INSTRUCTIONS 

TO delegate; action on the constitution; instructions to 
representatives; adoption of the united states constitu- 
tion ; RECAPITULATION. 

In addition to the state of commotion and anxiety in which 
the citizens were kept by the vicissitudes of the war, and the 
oft-repeated calls on them for more men and more money, 
their minds were no less agitated in the discussion and estab- 
lishment of a form of Government. The political acts and 
sentiments of the people at this period, as expressed in the 
Town Records, were of the most elevated character. There 
was a clear understanding of the principles of constitutional 
liberty, a brevity and pointedness in the expression of them, 
a knowledge of the forms of business, and a directness and 
firmness in their resolves which are remarkable. The whole 
record, during the Revolution, for the exhibition of wisdom, 
patriotism and good order, will compare well with that of any 
other legislative body that can be furnished. We can, how- 
ever, give only a summary of it. 

A Provisional State Government had been arranged soon 
after the Declaration of Independence. The Articles of Con- 
federation and perpetual Union of the United States had al- 
ready been read, and the first thirteen approved ; and the Re- 
presentative to the Assembly had been instructed to vote for a 
Convention to frame a Government " for the future happiness 
and well-being of the good people of the State." This Con- 
vention having been decreed, Timothy Farrar was chosen to 
attend it. It was held at Concord June 10, 1778, and was in 



108 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS. 

session several days ; but as its Records are lost, the doings 
are not known. That some plan was framed and submitted 
to the people is evident from the Town Record dated August, 
1779, " Voted to act on the Bill of Rights and Plan of Govern- 
ment, article by article ;" and, on the vote upon the whole sub- 
ject, ninety-four were for receiving, and thirteen for rejecting 
it. It did not, however, go into operation, and was probably 
rejected by a majority of the towns ; and the Provisional Gov- 
ernment remained in force. 

A Convention was again recommended "by authority," to 
be holden at Concord on the first Tuesday in June, 1781, to 
form a permanent plan of Government. Timothy Farrar, 
Esq., was again appointed as the delegate from this town. A 
Committee to give him Instructions, consisting of Isaac Apple- 
ton, Ephraim Adams, and Isaac How, was appointed, who 
subsequently reported the following : 

"Whereas we, the town of New Ipswich, have chosen you, Tim- 
othy Farrar, Esq., Delegate to meet in Convention with the dele- 
gates of the State of New Hampshire, for the purpose of forming a 
permanent plan of Government for said State ; and though our 
choice fully demonstrates that we have a high esteem for your abili- 
ties and integrity, yet as the affair is of the greatest importance, and 
as we have chosen you to act for the people, we would give you 
some Instructions, viz. : 

That you use your utmost endeavours that the rights of the peo- 
ple be well secured by a Bill of Rights and plan of Government be- 
ing fully, properly and well stated. Though this comprehends all, 
yet as the following particulars were not inserted by the former 
Convention, we instruct you to use your influence that they may be 
inserted in the Bill of Rights and plan of Government now to be 
formed. 

1st. That the Legislature shall make all the Laws for the State 
in our own common language. 

2d. That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of 
writing and publishing their sentiments ; therefore, the freedom of 
the press ought not to be restrained. 

3d. That the people have a right to assemble together, to consult 
for their common good, to instruct Representatives and to apply to 
the Legislature for redress of grievances, by address, petition or 
remonstrance. 

4th. That the Legislature shall not give any gift or pension to 
any person or persons, to be paid by the public, without the concur- 
rence of the people at large, before they are called upon to pay it. 



ACTION ON THE STATE CONSTITUTION. 109 

5th. That the Legislature shall be chosen annually, saving the 
right to each county and town to dismiss their members when they 
see fit, and send new men in their room. 

6th. As standing Armies in time of peace are dangerous to Lib- 
erty, they ought not to be kept up, — only proper garrisons for castles 
at seaports ; but that the militia be kept well regulated, so as to be 
in good order to turn out in case of an invasion. 

■fth. That the Legislature send to every town, in print, at the 
rising of every session, all their proceedings (which can concern the 
public) at their preceding session. 

Sth. That the Legislature ought not to delegate their power of 
making laws, nor right of taxation, to any other hands. 

9th. That the Legislature shall not lay any duty on any article 
of trade without the concurrence of the people at large." 

The Convention was held at the appointed time, and a 
committee of seven, of which Judge Farrar was one, was 
chosen to draft a Constitution, and report at an adjourned 
meeting in September following. The Committee reported, 
and a Bill of Rights and plan of Government was agreed on, 
which was printed, and sent forth to the towns with explana- 
tions, for their acceptance or rejection. It arrived in town in 
November ; whereupon the following were chosen a commit- 
tee to examine it, and report at an adjourned meeting on the 
3d of January, 1782, viz., Rev. Stephen Farrar, President; 
Paul Prichard, Benjamin Gibbs, Isaac How, James Chandler, 
John Pratt, Isaac Appleton, Josiah Brown, Enos Knight, Ben- 
jamin Adams, Joseph Parker, John Preston and Jonathan 
Kimball. These will at once be recognized as among the 
most able men and leading politicians of the town. It is pre- 
sumed that the Report, proposing amendments, was read at 
this adjourned meeting by the President ; but no action upon 
it is recorded, except to choose a Committee to give reasons 
for the amendments in the plan of Government ; Rev. Mr. Far- 
rar, Isaac How and Isaac Appleton composed the Committee. 
A special meeting on the following Tuesday was then voted, 
when it was expected that every thing would be in readiness 
for definite action. 

This meeting, on January Sth, 1782, was evidently deemed 
of no ordinary importance, and was conducted with all the 
formality and solemnity comporting with the importance of 
the occasion. In the first place, the Rev. Mr. Farrar was 



110 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS. 

specially requested to act with the town at this meeting ; for 
although a high whig and zealous politician, he never, ex- 
cept on the present occasion and when he went as delegate to 
Exeter, mingled directly in the secular and political legislation 
of the town. In the next place, the following stringent Rules 
and Regulations, to be observed during the meeting, were 
adopted, viz. : 

" 1. The Inhabitants, when assembled, shall take their seat in 
the body seats, nor shall any person leave the house, or even their 
seat, without leave of the Moderator. 

2. No person shall transact any business of private concernment, 
while in the meeting-house, or hold any conversation with any per- 
son or persons upon any subject whatever, during the term of hold- 
ing said meeting. 

3. No person shall speak in town meeting, without leave first had 
and obtained of the Moderator ; and every person desiring it, shall 
have leave to speak twice to each particular point, and shall be fully 
and patiently heard. 

4. No person shall speak but by address to the Moderator, and 
but one shall be allowed to speak at a time. 

5. Should there be occasion for the adjournment of this meeting, 
punctual attention shall be paid to the term of said adjournment." 

All preliminaries being thus arranged, an adjournment to 
the following day, at ten o'clock^ was made, so as to have 
ample time for discussion ; and the voters convened accord- 
ingly. 

It was first put to vote to see if the town would accept the 
plan without alterations or amendments. The decision was 
unanimously in the negative. It was then unanimously voted 
to accept the same, with the proposed alterations, together 
with the reasons for said alterations. 

It must he recollected that this grave and protracted discus- 
sion, which lasted till towards evening, took place on the 9th 
of January, in the old meeting-house on the top of the hill, in 
which no fire ever diff"used its genial influences. It is not to 
be wondered at, therefore, that as soon as this momentous 
business was despatched, there should have been an adjourn- 
ment for " one quarter of an hour to Mr. Samuel Hey wood's 
dwelling-house." Nor would it be strange if, at this inclem- 
ent season, and considering that Mr. Heywood's house was 



ACTION ON THE STATE CONSTITUTION. HI 

also a public house, something ardent should have been appli- 
ed to the inner as well as to the outer man. 

Subsequently, the voters reassembled, and voted to return 
thanks to the Rev. Mr. Farrar for his kind assistance to this 
town in the important affairs of this meeting ; and he was 
also requested to assist the clerk in drawing up the votes and 
determinations of the town, with the amendments proposed, 
and reasons therefor, in order to lay the same before the Con- 
vention ; which was done, and entered upon the Town Re- 
cord. The whole paper is an admirable one, and of itself 
sufficient to stamp its reverend author as an ardent patriot, a 
far-sighted politician, and a clear-headed reasoner. We must 
however content ourselves with an abstract of it, in relation 
to some of the more important points. 

There was a clause in relation to the powers of the Legisla- 
ture, by which acts might be done " by authority derived 
from that body." This was to be erased, because " we give a 
power to our Representatives of Legislation and Taxation to 
be exercised by themselves, but not for them to transfer this 
power into the hands of others, — besides, should they exer- 
cise this power, we know not where it may fall, possibly 
into the hands of some foreign Prince or Potentate ; we there- 
fore chuse to have the power revert into our own hands, un- 
less it be exercised by those we immediately choose for that 
purpose." 

They insisted that a clause should be added, that no Tax, 
by way of Excise, on any articles whatever, should be laid 
without the consent of the people at large. They considered 
it " an unequitable way of defraying public expense ;" but as 
the necessities of the State might possibly require money to be 
raised in this way "on a sudden emergency, we think it best 
to leave it with the people at large to judge of the expediency." 

In relation to granting pensions, it had been drafted that the 
Legislature should be " exceeding cautious." But the report 
insisted not only that this expression should be erased, but 
that no pensions or gifts of public money should be granted 
" without the explicit consent of their constituents." It was 
argued that the terms " exceeding cautious" would " lay no 
restriction at all in respect of granting said pensions, the Legis- 



112 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 

lature being themselves judges of the exercise of that power, 
and consequently would in every instance be able to say that 
their grants were made with the greatest caution." 

Senators were to be proportioned according to the number 
of rateable polls in each District, and not according to prop- 
erty ; because " we conceive it to be of importance to preserve 
this idea, that the Legislative body is a representation of per- 
sons ; and as life, liberty and property are of equal importance 
to the poor as the rich, there ought to be an equality in the 
choice of Representatives," and every legal inhabitant paying 
taxes shall be considered as a qualified voter. They proposed 
that the property qualification for a Senator should not rise 
above £200 real estate, " lest, as it stood in the Constitution, 
it would deprive us of the Wisdom and Assistance of many 
valuable persons in the State." 

They proposed that every town having one hundred voters, 
should be entitled to send one Representative, and another for 
every additional hundred ; substituting this method for the one 
proposed in the Constitution, for the " plain and important 
reason that we might chuse our own Representative, and not 
put it into the hands of others to chuse for us. This privilege 
we shall always agonize to retain.'''' 

They proposed that the supreme magistrate of the State 
should be styled President; because "mere titles add nothing 
to real service ; besides, the alteration in style may produce 
a saving in expense." They objected to his having a veto 
upon the acts of the majority of both Houses of the Legisla- 
ture ; and yet •' thought that the President should have it in 
his power to call upon the legislators to review their acts, 
which, together with attending to the reasonings and remarks 
of the President, may have a happy tendency to render our 
laws more perfect and complete." 

" Those Salaries which the Constitution renders fixed and 
permanent shall be voted annually ; reason, that the servants 
of the State might feel themselves dependent, and find herein 
a motive to fidelity;" also, their services, year by year, would 
be better ascertained. 

In relation to Absentees, and the confiscation of their es- 
tates, they were disposed to be rigid; reason, " Those who 



ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION. 113 

have acted so cruel a part as to leave us in time of distress, 
especially those who have acted the part of a revengeful and 
implacable enemy, as we suppose many of them have done, to 
take up arms in order to enslave and destroy their country, 
make but a very inadequate atonement for their crime by the 
forfeiture of their Estate ; nor is it reasonable that such per- 
sons should ever return, but by the undeserved clemency of 
the people whom they have injured." 

It was deemed important that the Treasurer, and all others 
entrusted with public moneys, should be brought to a settle- 
ment at least once a year ; and that this should be embodied 
m the Constitution, "to prevent fraud, embezzlement, and 
embarrassment in settlements." 

The draft of the Constitution having thus been submitted to 
the people, the State Convention then held a third session in 
January, 1782, when it was found that the objections to it 
were so numerous as to render it necessary to prepare a second. 
It was accordingly prepared, probably by the same committee, 
and again printed and sent out for the consideration of the 
people. This draft was much more generally approved ; but 
still some amendments were found necessary ; and the Provi- 
sional Government having expired with the War, was revived 
by a vote of the people until the Constitution should be per- 
fected. The draft was a third time printed and circulated in 
its amended form ; and having received the approbation of a 
majority of the people, the Constitution was finally established 
at the ninth meeting of the Convention, in October, 1783, to 
take effect on the first Wednesday of June, 1784. In this 
town, the second draft was also strongly opposed and materi- 
ally amended ; after which the votes stood 34 for it, as it was 
presented, and 24 nays, except with the proposed amendments. 
On its third presentation, this town voted that it was their 
earnest desire that a majority should determine all votes in the 
General Court, after hearing any objection offered by the Gov- 
ernor ; yet, rather than the Constitution should not pass next 
session of the Convention, they consent to adopt the method 
proposed by said Convention August 21, 1782. Yeas 36 ; 
Nays 6. Nearly all the modifications proposed by this town 
were embodied in it, especially the title of President for the 
15 



114 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 

Chief Magistrate, which he bore until 1790, when, having 
been given to the chief magistrate of the United States, it 
became less appropriate. 

The consideration of the plan of a State Constitution was 
only one of the many topics on which the inhabitants had oc- 
casion to express their political sentiments. These are mostly 
embodied in the annual Instructions given to their Represent- 
ative, which they always maintained the right of imposing, 
with the expectation that he would strictly conform to them ; 
and they had, moreover, in several instances, chosen a person 
to deliver a speech or oration just previous to entering upon 
the choice of a Representative, " setting forth the duty and 
privilege of the Electors, and the duty and obligations of the 
person elected;" and this they proposed to establish into a 
perpetual custom. It does not appear, however, by whom 
this preliminary was performed except in two instances, when 
Deacon Jonathan Kimball and Dr. John Preston officiated. 

In May, 1781, the town, not content with the Instructions 
they had given their Representative, Dea. Ephraim Adams, 
when he was elected on the preceding November, chose Dr. 
John Preston, Paul Prichard and Isaac How a committee to 
give further instructions. The preamble to these Instructions 
is too rich and stately to be lost, and is as follows : 

" Sir, the fate of the Nations of Europe, together with our own 
Experience, sufficiently evinces the necessity of carefully looking 
into the conduct of those we intrust with the management of our 
public affairs, for (in our regard,) the natural propensity of those 
in power to oppress those whom they are under every possible 
obligation to protect has been too notorious, even in Republican Gov- 
ernments, and Slavery has crept in through too great remissness 
and want of attention in the people at large ; — and although we have 
satisfactory evidence of your faithfulness, zeal and fortitude in the 
important part reposed in you, we regret that it has not been in 
your power to give us a more particular account of the acts and 
proceedings of our Legislature ; and whereas, we presume it must 
be very satisfactory to you to find that you represent a people who 
are not so entirely lost to all sense of virtue and patriotism, as 
tamely or implicitly to acquiesce at all times in all public measures, 
without ever examining the propriety thereof; and when any of 
the acts and proceedings of our Legislature appear to us exception- 
able, we claim the right of remonstrating against them and peti- 
tioning for redress ; a privilege so essential to the liberties of a 



INSTRUCTIONS TO REPRESENTATIVES. 115 

free people, that whoever shall attempt to deprive us of it, strikes 
at the vitals of the Constitution, and ought immediately to suffer as 
a capital offender. And as we have a right at all times to instruct 
those we intrust with the management of our public affairs, we 
presume it will be very satisfactory to every honest representative 
to know that he acts the minds of his constituents ; and therefore, 
Sir, we hereby give you the following instructions, in addition to 
those you have already received from us." 

The burden of his instructions this year, and for the five or 
six successive years that he was reelected were, that the army 
should be fulLy and promptly filled up, and amply supplied 
and supported ; that all persons in the service of the State 
should be honorably rewarded for their services ; that the test 
act, so far as respects voters in town meeting, be repealed ; 
that prisoners for debt may be kept in close confinement, un- 
less they give bond and security for double the sum recovered, 
previous to obtaining the liberty of the yard ; that an excise 
be laid on all spirituous liquors, without regard to the number 
of gallons ; that all due encouragement be given to our own 
manufacturing, by giving proper bounties ; that proper fee 
tables for clerks and attorneys be established ; that Ports- 
mouth be a free port for all nations at peace ; that no pensions 
or compensation for extraordinary expenses be granted to par- 
ticular persons, where there were no promises of Congress 
therefor. 

In 1787, Charles Barrett was chosen Representative, and 
was instructed to pay a sacred regard to the principles of the 
Constitution of the State, and be opposed to those men and 
measures which are not directed by republican principles; 
that he use his utmost endeavors to raise the credit of the 
State by urging the speedy and punctual payment of taxes, 
and by proper imposts and excise to encourage industry, econ- 
omy and frugality, and to remove every obstacle to the circu- 
lation of specie ; that no public moneys be granted to unde- 
serving persons ; that no persons of corrupt morals and deist- 
ical principles hold any office or post of trust in this State ; 
that persons entrusted with public money be frequently called 
to account ; that a copy of the doings of each session, with 
the yeas and nays, grants of moneys, &c., be brought home. 
Considering the known political and religious sentiments of 



116 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 

the incumbent, and his personal relations to the Committee of 
which Dr. Preston was chairman, some of these instructions 
must be interpreted in a severely ironical sense. 

In regard to a paper currency, and to the granting of pen- 
sions, the opposition was uncompromising ; and in relation to 
the latter, a convention was called, in connection with other 
towns, and held at Temple in 1781, to prepare a petition and 
remonstrance to the General Court. Dr. Preston and Isaac 
How were sent as Delegates. The resolves there passed were 
presented to the Legislature for consideration. When, in 
1786, the General Court submitted a plan for the emission of 
paper currency, the representative was instructed to oppose the 
" plan sent out by Government, or any other plan." It is 
well known, however, that the sentiment on this subject was 
so different in other places, that an armed mob beset the meet- 
ing house at Exeter, in which the Legislature was in session, 
and demanded an immediate issue of paper money, which 
should be a legal tender for debts or taxes. No heed was 
given to their demand, and the mob was promptly dispersed 
by Gen. Cilley, under the direction of President Sullivan. 

The consideration of the Constitution of the United States, 
which was submitted in 1787, in place of the Articles of Con- 
federation, was another of the exciting topics which super- 
vened upon the Revolution, and gave origin to the two great 
political parties which so long prevailed in this country. In 
this town party feelings ran high, and strange to say, some of 
those who had been most loyal to a regal government became 
most radical in their democracy. The opposing candidates 
for the Convention on its acceptance, were Hon. Timothy 
Farrar, a strong federalist, and Hon. Charles Barrett. After 
a hard struggle, the latter was elected. He was strongly 
opposed to the Constitution, and voted against it to the last; 
often declaring that " Presidents would prove nothing less than 
four-year-old kings, and finally kings for life." Eight States 
had already adopted the Constitution, and it required the 
assent of one more to make it binding on the whole. All eyes 
were therefore turned on New Hampshire and New York, 
then holding its Convention at Albany. It was finally accept- 
ed by New Hampshire by a small majority ; and a messenger 



CLAIMS OF DESTITUTE SOLDIERS. 117 

was immediately despatched from Concord to Albany to give 
the information. As Judge Farrar was then one of the lead- 
ing politicians in the State, and had been very solicitous that 
the Constitution should be accepted, the messenger was in- 
structed to call on him on his way, and communicate intelli- 
gence so gratifying. He arrived on Sunday, during religious 
services, and so important was the message considered, that 
Judge Farrar was called out of meeting to receive the news ; 
and it is said that many who had been induced to vote against 
him as a delegate, congratulated him on the joyful news, and 
were heartily glad of the result. 

With the exception of these two great subjects, the con- 
struction of a State and General Government, little else pre- 
sented itself subsequent to the Revolution. The settlement of 
the claims of those who had served in the war, for their ser- 
vices and losses, occasioned some considerable difficulty and 
dissatisfaction. The soldiers had returned penniless and bro- 
ken down ; many of them homeless, and without employment. 
They felt as though a debt of gratitude was due to them, and 
they claimed the aid and hospitality of those who had remain- 
ed at home. On the other hand, those who had staid at home, 
felt that they had toiled hard and made very heavy sacrifices, 
to provide means to pay the soldiers and sustain the war ; and 
on one occasion, by way of retort on the soldiers, some one 
had inserted in the warrant for town meeting an article " to 
see if the town will allow the inhabitants in town for the ser- 
vices done in the war on their farms or places." And when 
Mr. Farrar, during the depreciation of the currency, asked 
that his salary should be made good to him, some of the in- 
habitants entered their protest against it, " because his estate 
is subject to no tax for the support of the present war, which 
war defends his estate and person as well as ours ; and the 
charge of this war is so great that we cannot expect it can all 
be paid in our day, if it can in our children's. 2d. Because, 
that as he shared with us in prosperity, we think he ought to 
share with us now in adversity. 3d. Because we think a 
minister ought not, in such a time of extremity, to keep rising, 
and his people falling, but that they ought to rise or fall 
together, and that a minister ought to take his lot with the 
people." 



118 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 

In 1795, it was apprehended that a war might arise with 
France or England, botli of which were then interfering with 
our commerce ; and it was proposed to raise a company of 
minute-men to be ready in case of need. The town met to 
consider the proposals of the militia-men who had volunteered 
for the public service as soldiers, and voted that each soldier, 
when equipped to the satisfaction of his commanding officer, 
and producing a certificate thereof to the selectmen, should 
receive nine shillings as bounty, and when called into actual 
service should receive nine dollars a month, including the 
wages given by Congress. 

For several years, a debate was carried on as to the proper 
location of a new Pound, and the materials of which it should 
be built. In 1784, Charles Barrett, Esq. built the present 
pound, on his own land, at the corner of the old burying- 
ground, and at his own expense, and made a free gift of them 
both to the town, for which a vote of thanks was passed. 
Thus that matter was set at rest. 

In 1789, a meeting was held to choose an agent, to defend 
in a suit brought against the town by Dr. John Preston. It 
was probably brought for medical services rendered to the 
poor. It was agreed to leave the matter to the discretion of 
the Selectmen ; but it was also voted, " not to employ Dr. 
John Preston in future to doctor the town's poor." This 
vote, however, was reconsidered two years afterwards. 

In 1791, an attempt was made to mise money to procure a 
town Library, in connection with the Demosthenian Society, 
which had been established by the scholars of the Academy, 
but it failed. A town library was, however, soon after estab- 
lished by subscription, and held in shares. In 1799, it was 
voted " that the United States' Laws, conveyed to this town 
by Ephraim Hartwell, Esq., be deposited in the hands of the 
librarian of the Town Library, (so called in distinction from 
the Demosthenean ;) said librarian is, in consequence of this 
vote, authorized to loan said books at his discretion, to any 
person in this or in the Ninth District, who shall apply for 
the same." This Library was burnt in 1812 ; and at that 
time numbered between three and four hundred volumes. 

One of the practices of which there is frequent mention in 



WARNING OUT OF TOWN. 119 

the Records at the latter part of the last century, and which 
will be remembered by only a few persons now living, was 
that of " warning out of town." Whenever an individual, or 
family, came to reside in town, whatever might be their sta- 
tion or condition, and especially if they were in indigent cir- 
cumstances, the Selectmen ordered the constable to warn 
them " to depart out of town within fourteen days, and re- 
main in it no longer." This was not intended to compel the 
new-comers to leave the town ; but, by thus refusing them a 
legal residence, to secure the town against the liability of be- 
ing obliged to support them, should they ever become paupers. 
Afterwards, this practice was discontinued, the law being so 
altered that the town was not liable unless the pauper had 
paid taxes within a certain period. The Assessors were there- 
fore very careful not to levy taxes on those whose pecuniary 
resources were very questionable.* 

Several other events of much importance belong to the his- 
tory of the close of this century ; such as the founding of the 
New Ipswich Academy; the great religious Revival of 1786; 
the Shaker delusion, &c., which will be duly noticed in their 
special connections. 

At the close of the century, the town was in a flourishing 
condition, and in many respects was in as efl!ective a condi- 
tion as it has ever been since. The war was ended, and a 
satisfactory Government was established. The farms were 
again managed by a competent number of hands. Business 
resumed its usual channels. Learning and manufactures be- 
gan to receive especial attention. The debts of the Revolu- 

* The following may serve as an example of the usual formula : 

"State of New Hampshire, ) To Mr. Francis Appleton, Constable for 
Hillsborough, ss. ) New Ipswich in said County, Greeting: 

" Whereas a widow woman, named A — F — , came to this town the 28th of 
December last from the town of Littleton, State of Massachusetts, to reside here 
in said New Ipswich, said person we refuse to receive as an inhabitant ; this is 
therefore to require you, in the name of the Government and people of the State 
of New Hampshire, to notify and warn the above-named person forthwith to de- 
part out of said New Ipswich, and reside in it no longer, and go to the place 
where she is a lawful inhabitant. Hereof fail not, and make due return of this 
warrant with your doings thereon, as you will answer your default at the penalty 
of the law for that end made and provided. Given under our hand and seal at 
New Ipswich, this seventeenth day of April, A. D. 1781." 



120 STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS. 

tion, which had so long imposed heavy taxes, were hqiiidated, 
and prosperity dawned on every side. Two log-houses alone 
remained ; one of them was situated on a part of the Stratton 
farm, near the borders of Mason, and was last occupied by a 
colored man named Herrick. The other was in the vicinity 
of the Solomon Davis farm, on the hill east of the river, and 
was last occupied by Nathaniel Williams. Which of these 
two has the melancholy distinction of being the last of its 
kind, is veiled in uncertainty. 



CHAPTER IX, 



HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY, 



POLITICS ; THE EMBARGO ; PETITION TO JEFFERSON ; THE WAR OF 

MDCCcxii; turnpike; post office; stages and railroads; 

PAUPERS AND POOR HOUSE; TOWN HOUSE ; FESTIVALS ; RECLAMA- 
TION OF A child; COLONY TO IOWA; morals; RECAPITULATION. 

During the fifty years of the present century, so few events 
worthy of record have occurred, and those at periods so dis- 
tant from each other, that it seems better to regard the epoch 
as a whole, and to arrange its history under the several more 
important topics, than to attempt to observe chronological 
order. 

Politics. At the March meeting in 1801, the Rev. Mr. 
Farrarwas requested to read Washington's Farewell Address 
from the pulpit on the next Sunday; and it was voted "to 
establish it as a custom in future, to have it read the Sunday 
succeeding the 22d of February." How long this custom 
was maintained does not appear. 

To show how well satisfied the citizens had become with 
the State Constitution, to which many of them had made such 
strong objections, when the question was taken in 1807, as to a 
revision of the Constitution, it was voted unanimously not to 
revise it. 

During the early part of the century, there was very great 
political harmony in the town. In choosing Governor and 
other State officers, the vote was sometimes almost unani- 
mous. The citizens were mostly federalists, coinciding in 
opinion with Judge Farrar, who exercised such a leading 
political influence in both the town and the State. When a 
difference of opinion on any measure arose at town meeting, it 
16 



122 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

was customary to appeal to him for his views ; and rarely, if 
ever, did they fail to be adopted, without further debate. 
When war again threatened, and the embargo was laid in 

1807, a democratic party (Jacobin as it was then called) arose, 
and gradually gained strength. Elijah Towne is said to have 
been the first who avowed himself of that party. But even 
as lately as 1814, only forty-one votes were cast for the dem- 
ocratic ticket, against one hundred and eighty-one for the fed- 
eralist candidate. 

The Embargo Act bore heavily upon all classes. There 
was no outlet for the products of the soil ; and such as had 
been received of the farmers by the country traders, in ex- 
change for goods, lay spoihng on their hands. In this town, 
quantities of butter, which had become unfit for consumption, 
were converted into soap. One of the traders, Peter Felt, is 
said to have succeeded in smuggling a large lot of damaged 
butter into Canada. At a meeting held on the 29th of August 

1808, it was resolved to petition the President of the United 
States for the repeal or suspension of the Embargo Law. 
Hon. Timothy Farrar, Hon. Ebenezer Champney, Noah Bart- 
lett, Esq., Isaiah Kidder, and Samuel Batchelder were ap- 
pointed a Committee for the purpose, and to express their 
opinion on the state of public affairs. Such a document was 
prepared and forwarded to President Jefferson. The original 
draft of it, in the handwriting of Noah Bartlett, with the 
amendments subsequently made by the Committee, is still 
extant. It is an article which does honor to its excellent au- 
thor, and deserves preservation. It attracted much attention 
at the time, and received a very frank and respectful reply 
from the President. The letter and reply were both published 
in the " Farmer's Cabinet," Nov. 15, 1808. 

PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The Inhabitants of New Ipswich, in the State of New Hamp- 
shire, in town meeting assembled, respectfully represent : That they 
have long waited anxiously, but submissively, in expectation of the 
removal of the present restraints upon the Commerce of this coun- 
try. That they have materially suffered, being mostly concerned 
in Agriculture, by the total stoppage of all sales of their productions 
for exportation, and the depression of the prices of such as are sold 



PETITION TO JEFFERSON. 123 

for home consumption. That fears are entertained that recourse 
must be had to Loans or Taxes to replenish our Treasury, cut off 
from its usual supplies by a measure which renders us less able to 
pay such Taxes, should they be necessary. But knowing these 
acts, layini^ an Embargo, were recommended, passed and approved 
by those who better knew the state of our Foreign relations and 
could better calculate the probable effects of such measures than 
themselves, they had hopes that it might produce some national 
benefit more than sufficient to counterbalance their individual suf- 
ferings. Under these impressions, they have calmly submitted ; 
supposing the time would shortly come when the proposed object 
would be effected and they should be relieved. But they have yet 
seen no appearance of approaching relief. Not having been favored 
with a knowledge of the object intended to be effected by this mea- 
sure, they cannot pretend to decide Avhether it will or not effect 
that object, and to pronounce from that decision whether it would 
be expedient to suspend the operation. 

But they feel that it is oppressive. They see no benefit pro- 
duced by it, and they know that certain events have taken place in 
Europe that would put it in our power to carry our produce to a 
good market were it not for the restrictions we have laid upon our 
commerce. Though the urgent orders and devices of the Belliger- 
ents respecting Neutrals may have justified those restrictions when 
their orders aftected our commerce in so considerable a degree, yet 
since Spain and Portugal have been added to the countries with 
which we may trade in safety, they think that commerce of too 
much consequence to be sacrificed upon any uncertain hope of 
bringing the belligerents to better terms (if such may be the intend- 
ed object of the embargo.) Every person who duly prizes the 
blessings of an independent Government, or who is averse to op- 
pression, must wish success to the Spaniards in their present enter- 
prises ; and we ought to be prompt to take off all restriction on 
trade with them, from more generous motives, if not from those of 
interest. It has been expected, if the Mercantile and Agricultural 
interest be injured by the Embargo, that the Manufacturers would 
be benefited by it. But though more extensively concerned in 
manufactures than any other town in this State, the Inhabitants of 
New Ipswich, far from finding the injuries to the farmers compen- 
sated by the benefits to the manufacturers, find the measure equally 
oppressive to both, and both unite in their wishes for the suspension 
of these laws. 

The total suppression of that trade which has been the source of 
our prosperity, and which has placed the means of procuring wealth 
within the reach of every man in the country, injures the manufac- 
turer by distressing all other classes, and denying him the means 
of producing his commodities. 

We exult in being members of the only existing Republic on 



124 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

earth, — in possessing the fair inheritance purchased by the blood of 
our fathers. And we ardently hope that our countrymen may 
never have an inducement to abandon the shores that gave them 
birth for monarchical employ, which many of a certain class are 
driven to do, by an act passed ostensibly for their protection. 

Influenced by such considerations, and further prompted by a 
wish to correct an opinion that we are in favor of an Embargo, 
which might reasonably be inferred from an Address to your Excel- 
lency by our Legislature in June last ; but which must have been 
founded on an entire misapprehension of the feelings and opinions 
of a great portion, if not a majority of the people of this State : the 
Inhabitants of New Ipswich pray, that the operation of the Acts, 
laying an Embargo, may be suspended, according to the powers 
vested in the President, or that Congress may be convened as early 
as possible, that they may deliberate on the changes which have 
occurred and the new channels (of trade) which have been thrown 
open for our commerce during their recess, and on the changes 
which may be necessary in our commercial regulations in conse- 
quence thereof. And as in duty bound will ever pray, 

Signed by Noah Bartlett, ) c 7 * 

^ J „ ' / Selectmen 

Supply vV ilson, > /• at t • t. 

Ty TVT \ of riew Ipswich. 

. Elijah Newell, ) -^ ^ 

Attest, John Preston, Town Clerk. 

The President, in his reply, states, that " no person has 
seen, with more concern than himself, the inconveniences 
brought upon the country by the circumstances of the times 
in which we happen to live" ; he reviews, in a calm, firm 
and conciliatory manner, the history of the wrongs imposed 
upon this country by the belligerents of Europe, and concludes 
by saying, " I should, with great willingness, have executed 
your wishes, had peace, or a repeal of the obnoxious edicts, 
or other changes, produced the case in which the laws alone 
have given me that authority. And so many motives of jus- 
tice and interest lead to such changes that we ought continu- 
ally to expect them. But while these edicts remain, the 
Legislature alone can prescribe the course to be piu'sued." 

Upon the receipt of President Jefierson's letter, some of the 
hot-blooded young Federalists of the town resolved upon mak- 
ing a public demonstration of their resentment, by burning its 
author in effigy. This auto-da-fe took place on the meadow 
in the rear of the Baptist meeting house. An attempt was 
made by Esquire Hartwell to stop the proceedings, but 



WAR OF MDCCCXII. 125 

without success, and he was threatened with a roasting him- 
self if he interfered. It is gratifying to know that but few 
were engaged in the business, and that it was disapproved of 
by a large majority of the citizens. 

The war of 1812 found but little favor in this town. Nearly 
all the citizens were opposed to it. Only five are recollected 
to have enlisted during its continuance. These were Aaron 
Barton, John Eaton, Ephraim Spoor, Peter Cummings, and 

Stearns. Barton went no further than Boston, where 

on account of some injury he was discharged, and now draws 
a pension ; Eaton died of fever on his way to Greenbush ; 
Spoor was discharged before the close of the first year ; of 
Cummings and Stearns nothing is known. 

In the fall of 1814 a requisition was made by the Governor 
for a detachment of nine men, to be sent to Portsmouth. The 
militia were called out on the 12th of September, and mus- 
tered in the old meeting-house. The selectmen offered a 
bounty of one dollar, and twelve dollars per month for wages, 
to volunteers. The drum and fife struck up, and a march com- 
menced through the aisles of the old church, reviving within 
its walls the scenes of " Seventy-six." The required number 
soon joined in. They were, Moody Blood, William Hall, Abel 
Gardner, Bela Gardner, Sewell Spaulding, James Spaulding, 
Ashby Brooks, Jonas Smith and John B. Wright. The town 
magazine was opened, and each man furnished with a quarter 
of a pound of powder and twelve bullets, most of which were 
expended in shooting at cats, pigeons and tavern signs on the 
march to Portsmouth, Avhich commenced next day. They 
were stationed at Fort Constitution, at the mouth of Ports- 
mouth harbor. James Spaulding is now (1851) the only sur- 
vivor. A requisition of six more men was made a week after- 
wards, and Peter Wilder, Silas Wheeler, Samuel Chickering, 
Nathan Severance, Henry Keep (as a substitute for Charles 

Walker), and Gould volunteered. They were stationed 

at Portsmouth Plains. 

Peace was proclaimed on the following February, and thus 
the term of service ended. Great joy was expressed by the 
firing of guns and social convivialities, but no public demon- 



126 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

stration was made. On the subsequent Fast day, however, 
Mr. Hall preached a political discourse, censuring the past 
course of the Administration in virulent terms, and gave seri- 
ous oflence to many of the citizens. 

The Turnpike. At the very commencement of the cen- 
tury the "Third New Hampshire Turnpike," was projected. 
It was very strongly opposed by those at the westerly part 
of the town, through whose lands it was to pass, and who 
wished to have it take a more southerly route, and gave rise 
to some riotous proceedings by no means creditable to those 
concerned. One party sustained the contractors in breaking 
through the lands, while another did what they could, by 
threats and annoyances, to drive olf the working party. 
Ploughs, shovels and other implements were carried off or 
mutilated, and not a few bruised heads and lawsuits resulted. 
In the " New Year's Gift," by Isaac Iambic, a satirical poem, 
still well remembered by the older citizens, this violation of 
the peace and dignity of the town is duly noticed. 

" Now turnpike themes again come round, 
And we must creep on turnpike ground ; 
Those shall not pass Avithout my lesson, 
Who pulled down fence, and took possession 
Before the owners had their pay 
For land and damages ; — and they 
Who did oppose with so much fury, 
Who got together mob unruly, 
And went one day to Tophet Swamp, 
To force the workmen to decamp." 

After casting all the blame of sustaining the trespassers upon 
'Squire H-rtw-11, and enumerating some of the "demagogues 
and fools" who opposed them, he continues, — 

" And shall I tell how they have acted, 
How by the D — 1 they 've been directed, 
Of cutting ploughs and carts and scrapers, 
And playing all such devilish capers ; 
How Joseph both his axes lent 
To Is-c Gr— n, with this intent; 
How many lawsuits now were brought, 
And all with trivial charges fraught ; 



i 



THE TURNPIKE. 127 

Of stones being flung with fatal aim 
At Isaac's little head in vain ! 
O what poor marksmen, could n't they hit 
That lump of skull with little wit? 
* * * 

See how our worthy priest has been abused, 
'Cause he with equal candor both sides used ; 
Who having lectured those who broke the land. 
With equal justice then reversed his hand, 
And brought the crime in glaring strains to light, 
Of cutting carts and scrapers in the night. 
O shame to tell ! the Deacon joined the throng 
That blamed the priest, and said that he was wrong' 
In such affairs as this to interfere, 
And that he should of all such things keep clear." 

The turnpike was fifty miles long, extending from Town- 
send to WalpoJe. Its location was as bad as it could well be, 
and was laid out on the idea that the most direct course was 
both the shortest and most expeditious ; hence there was the 
tugging directly over the summit of steep hills, when it would 
have been as near to go round them on nearly level ground. 
The contract for constructing it was chiefly taken by Col. 
Bellows, of Walpole, assisted by 'Squire Hart well and others ; 
and sections of it, were undertaken in this town, by Seth 
Wheeler and Maj. Benj. Adams. It proved an unprofitable 
enterprize. It cost about f 50,000, divided into shares of ^200. 
A very small dividend was declared for a few years ; but in 
1813 the stock had depreciated so much that it sold for twelve 
dollars a share ; and about the year 1819, for some small sum, 
which was raised by voluntary subscription, it was made a 
free road, and adopted by the town. The toll-gates were 
placed, one at the foot of the hills in Mason, and the other 
near where the Rindge road turns off above the Flat Moun- 
tain. The people above this latter gate, however, did not 
choose to pay toll for coming to the village, and therefore cut 
a road around it. Travellers and teams soon learned to avail 
themselves of the same loop-hole, and the Directors found it 
more judicious to allow the citizens and their neighbors to 
travel two or three miles free, and catch those who travelled 
long distances ; so the gate was removed westward to near the 
borders of the town. 



128 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

The first bridge over the Souhegan, commonly called the 
" High Bridge," was an immense wooden structure, consider- 
ably higher than the present one. It was taken down in 
1815, and a stone structure was built by Capt. Aaron Brown, 
for the sum of $2,000. None of the stones were squared, and 
very soon after its completion it fell down. The Proprietors 
claimed damages for deficiency in the work, and referees 
awarded $1,212 damages. The present bridge was built in 
1817, under the supervision of Jesse Patten. It is one hund- 
red and fifty-six feet long, forty-two feet above the water, and 
twenty-two feet wide, resting on a single arch. In 1848, the 
town built a parapet wall of split stone, on each side, at a cost 
of about |300. 

A Post-Office was established in New Ipswich in the au- 
tumn of 1800, and Samuel Batchelder, Sen. was appointed the 
first postmaster. The oflice was located at the store of Mr. 
Batchelder in the bake-house village. As it did not accom- 
modate the mass of the people, a petition was forwarded to 
the Hon. Gideon Granger, the Postmaster General, from the 
people residing in the middle of the town, asking for its remo- 
val. He replied to their petition, saying that " as it appeared 
to be for the public good, the request was granted," and Ben- 
jamin Champney, Esq. was appointed postmaster. He enter- 
ed upon his duties in January 1802, and held his place for 
twenty years and six months. The post-office was at first in 
the building occupied by the postmaster as a law office. It 
was a snug little one story, steep-roofed building, with pro- 
jecting eaves, situated under the shade of a large willow tree, 
on the north side of the road, just across the brook, near 
the late Dr. Barr's residence. But it was afterwards kept at 
Mr. Batchelder' s store (now E. M. Isaacs), and then at Mr. 
Fletcher's on the other side of the way ; and the duties of the 
office were mostly performed by those who kept the stores. 
The subsequent appointments have been as follows : 

July 8, 1822, Sampson Fletcher. 
March 23, 1839, Josiah W. Spaulding. 
March 10, 1843, Charles Hastings, Jr. 
July 3, 1845, Charles Chickering. 
April 23, 1849, Edward M. Isaacs. 



STAGES. 



129 



The statistics of the post-office in this town is an epitome of 
its history throughout the States. Mr. Batchclder made his 
first Return to Government Jan. 1, 1801, and paid over the 
nett proceeds, amounting to seven cents, his commission being 
three cents. One letter had been received, on which the post- 
age was ten cents. The receipts steadily increased, as shown 
by the amounts paid over at the following dates 

For the year ending October 1, 1801, 





1801, . . 


. $ 4 33 




1811, . 


77 39 




1821, . 


. 150 02 




1831, . 


. 306 96 




1841, . 


. . 441 27 




1851, . 


. 521 08 



Stages. During the first years of the revolution, a man 
was hired to ride post between here and Boston, by the way 
of Amherst, and bring newspapers and messages; and pre- 
vious to 1800, letters used sometimes to come to Amherst 
post office for people in this town. In 1794, a post-rider, by 
the name of Balch, commenced going from Boston to Keene 
one week, and back the next. He came through this town 
and did errands for the inhabitants. 

In the spring of 1802, Dearborn Emerson, commenced run- 
ning a stage from Groton to New Ipswich. On the first trip 
from New Ipswich he carried three passengers, viz. : Reuben 
Kidder, Esq. and lady, and Timothy Farrar, Jr. The fol- 
lowing is copied from an advertisement in the Keene Sentinel, 
dated Dec. 3d, of that year. " Dearborn Emerson informs 
the public that he runs a line of stages on the middle post 
road from Boston to Walpole twice a week, passing through 
Concord, Groton, New Ipswich, Jaffrey, Marlborough and 
Keene to Walpole; leaving Boston every Wednesday and 
Saturday morning, at 4 o'clock — arriving at New Ipswich 
at 6 o'clock in the evenhig, leaving there at 4 o'clock every 
Thursday and Monday morning, arriving at Keene at noon, 
and at Walpole at 6 o'clock in the evening. The fare from 
Boston to Keene $4,50 ; to New Ipswich, $3,25." From a 
remark in the advertisement that " the road the most part of 
the way is a good turnpike," it may be inferred that the third 
17 



130 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

New Hampshire turnpike, from Townsend to Walpole, was 
then finished. About 1807 the stages commenced running 
three times a week, from Boston to Keene, arriving here from 
Boston about 2 o'clock, P. M., and reaching Keene the same 
evening. This arrangement continued until about 1820, 
when there was a coach daily. 

That old stage coach! Who that can remember it, thirty- 
years ago, does not recal the excitement which was awakened 
when it peered over the brow of the hill, and came thunder- 
ing down, with Jehu speed, half enveloped in a cloud of dust 1 
The tin horn sounds its approach, and the driver, summoning 
his bravest air, rounds up to the door at full gallop, with a 
crack of the whip within an ace of the leader's ear, which 
sent a thrill through every beholder. He was a great man, 
that coachman. He had seen what to us were foreign parts; 
and knew more of what was going on in the world than all 
the town beside. He was almost the only medium of inter- 
course between our mountain-enclosed citizens and the outside 
world. If there had been a fire, or a failure, a marriage or a 
murder, a death or a duel, he knew all about it. He jumps 
from his box while the mail bag is being examined, waters 
his horses, cracks a few jokes, retails as much gossip as the 
time will allow, discharges a passenger if there happens to be 
one, tosses up his mail bag, mounts his seat, a'ld is oif to 
Batchelder's tavern for dinner. The people on the road who 
happened to be going to mill or to the stores, especially the 
women and boys, kept a good look out for the stage, in order 
that they might have time to get fairly out of the road, and 
give place for it to pass; for, in the first place, it was consid- 
ered unlawful to obstruct the mail coach — every thing must 
clear out of its way; and in the next place, it would have 
been no difficult matter for that knowing and dexterous driver 
to run them down, and strew grist, butter and eggs, as well 
as themselves, in the gutter. 

But what a change has taken place within the last twenty 
years ! The stage coach is no longer an object of wonder, 
and every body has travelled. The old straight road to Bos- 
ton through Townsend, Pepperell, Groton, Littleton, Aclon, 
Concord, Lexington and so on, the road which our fathers 



MAINTENANCE OF THE POOR. 131 

and grandfathers knew, has been well nigh abandoned ; and 
were those who emigrated in 1833, to colonize a new town in 
Iowa, now to revisit their native place for the first time, they 
would have little conception of the strange and devious way 
by which they would approach it. And all owing to the in- 
troduction of railroads. 

" The old turnpike is a pike no more, 

Wide open stands the gate ; 
We have made us a road for our horse to stride, 

Which we ride at a flying rate. 
We have filled the valleys and levelled the hills, 

And tunnelled the mountain side : 
And round the rough crag's dizzy verge, 

Fearlessly now we ride ! " 

First came the Lowell Railroad ; and then Concord, Lex- 
ington and Acton were passed by ; coaches then ran daily 
from Lowell through Chelmsford to Groton, and soon twice a 
day. Next came the Fitchburg Railroad, approaching still 
nearer ; Groton and Townsend were then passed by, and 
travel took a direction which had never before been dreamed 
of Then the Lowell road was extended to Nashua, and 
many found that the most convenient route to Boston, though 
in a direction nearly opposite, in the outset, to the route by 
Fitchburg ; and the roads through Ashby and Wilton, which 
had scarcely been known to any except the ministers, as 
they performed their annual exchange, and the lawyers, as 
they went to the courts at Amherst, now became familiar 
to every one. And finally, the road to West Townsend, eked 
out for a few years by stages through Mason village, until its 
completion to that point. For the honor and interest of our 
town, we trust this is not to be its nearest approach to the 
central village. 

Maintenance of the Poor. Great precaution was taken, in 
the earlier history of the town, to avoid incurring the burden 
of maintaining paupers. Hence the old custom, already alluded 
to, of " warning out," in order to prevent persons from ac- 
quiring a legal residence ; for it was not uncommon for neigh- 
boring towns, as it is now in foreign lands, to encourage 
their paupers to settle beyond their limits, in order to avoid 



132 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

the expense of their maintenance. At a later period it was 
customary to avoid receiving taxes from persons who were 
likely to require public support. Previous to the Revolution, 
the number of paupers was very small ; but the privations 
and calamities attendant upon this struggle for liberty, 
brought many to want, for a time. It was the custom to ob- 
tain places for them, and pay such annual sum as might be 
agreed upon, in addition to the services likely to be rendered. 
It was generally the practice to offer the maintenance of each 
one at public auction ; and they became dependent on the 
tender mercies of the lowest bidder. 

In 1828, at the town meeting, Charles Barrett, Stephen 
Wheeler, Peter Felt, Isaac Adams & Daniel J efts were ap- 
pointed a Committee to take into consideration the whole 
subject of an establishment for the Poor; and they were clothed 
with power to hire or purchase a farm for that purpose, and 
to take any measures they might see fit, to efiect the desired 
object. After examining a number of farms, and the terms on 
which they could be obtained, they purchased the Pratt farm 
for about $2600. It was an excellent and productive farm, 
and well suited to its intended use. It was placed under the 
management of Col. Isaac Sanderson, and at first nearly 
maintained itself On the whole, the cost to the town com- 
pared with the old system has been somewhat augmented, but 
the comforts of the poor have been much increased : and the 
pain of being annually assigned a home and a master, in 
which they had no voice, has been spared them. 

The average number of inmates has been about twelve. 

In 1836 the Poor House was also made a House of Correc- 
tion, and William Ainsworth, Esq., E. H. Farrar, Esq., and 
Maj. Seth King were appointed a Committee to prepare By- 
Laws for its regulation. They proposed the following Rules, 
which were adopted by the town : 

First. The Superintendent of the poor farm, for the time being, 
shall be also keeper of the House of Correction, and be clothed 
with all powers and duties incident to that office. 

Second. It shall be the duty of said keeper, to carry into effect 
the sentence of any magistrate upon any person sent to the House 
of Correction, and to enforce on the inmates, at all times, habits of 
sobriety, morality and quiet obedience. 



TOWN HOUSE. 133 

Third. All persons committed to said House of Correction, 
shall be obedient to the keeper thereof, and orderly in their conduct. 

Fourth. In case any person sent to said House of Correction, 
shall prove refractory & disobedient, the keeper shall be authorized, 
at his discretion, to inflict on such person any reasonable punish- 
ment, not exceeding hard labor, and such correction as a parent 
may lawfully inflict upon a refractory child, or solitary confinement 
not exceeding forty-eight hours. 

Fifth. The overseers of the Poor shall be authorized to make 
such alterations and additions to the buildings on the town farm as 
would enable the Superintendent to carry these Regulations into 
efTect. 

For fifty years and more, it had been customary, to transact 
all town business in the meeting house, and there was no 
building for general purposes, in tov/n, with the exception of 
the Hall over the apothecary shop of Dr. Preston, in which 
the Demosthenian Library was placed, the Masonic Lodge 
met, and a musical society occasionally practised. The old 
meeting house was now falling into ruin, the Academy build- 
ing was ill adapted to its purpose, and the central school house 
was in an equally discreditable condition. Tn 1816 a commit- 
tee was appointed to procure a plan for a Town House, and 
receive proposals for building it ; also to receive offers for the 
old Meeting House, and to confer with the Trustees of the 
Academy, and the Central School District, as to contributing 
towards its erection, with the expectation of jointly occupying 
it. A plan was fixed upon, and an arrangement effected with 
the Trustees of the Academy. A contract was also made 
with Deacon Nathaniel D. Gould, for its erection. He was 
to have the old meetinghouse, and employ such of the mate- 
rials as he pleased, in its construction, and to have the old 
Academy building and the land appertaining, which was 
supposed to comprise the plot between the Academy and 
Meetinghouse, used as a play ground and training field ; but 
it was afterwards claimed by the heirs of the Rev. Mr. Far- 
rar, and appeared, on examination, to have been given by him 
for the express and sole purpose of an Academy play ground. 
A small subscription was also added by the citizens. It was 
built and occupied in 1817, and in it are preserved many relics 
of the old meeting house. It has since served many useful 



134 



HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 




purposes; learning has found its 
abode in the upper halls; religion 
has been cradled and nurtured in the 
Sabbath School and conference meet- 
mg, under its roof; and while the 
clashing interests in town affairs, 
may sometimes have raised fell dis- 
cord below, the walls of the hall 
above have ofttimes resounded with 
harmonious strains of no ordinary 
character. In 1819 it was painted, and the expense defrayed 
by the sale of the old Common and some discontinued roads. 
In a secluded country town, having nothing but its own 
affairs to manage, but few incidents of a public nature are 
likely to occur. The most important ones pertaining to the 
last fifty years, have been already mentioned. Others, relating 
to ecclesiastical and educational matters, will be given in their 
appropriate places. Besides the raising of meeting-houses 
and ordination of ministers, the only festival occasions were 
as follows: 

The twentieth anniversary of American Independence, July 
4, 1796, was celebrated, with great parade, both civil and mil- 
itary. An oration was pronounced in the meeting house by 
Samuel Worcester,* then preceptor of the academy. Seve- 
ral young ladies personated goddesses, Minerva with her 
spear, Ceres with her sheaf of wheat, &c., and came bound- 
ing up the broad aisle while they sung "in joyful dance, with 
instruments of music." The musical performances were quite 
extraordinary for those days. A procession was formed and 
marched to a tent on the green, in front of 'Squire Hartwell's, 
where a dinner was provided by Isaac B. Farrar, who then 
kept the tavern adjacent. Guns were fired, toasts were given 
and great speeches were made. The oration was extolled, 
by the citizens of this and the neighboring towns, as extraor- 
dinary and most felicitous, and was printed, and has also 
been mainly reprinted in Dr. Worcester's biography by his son. 
The fourth of .July was celebrated in 1806, when an Ora- 



* Rev. Samuel Worcester, D. D., pastor of the Tabernacle Church, Salem. 



CELEBRATIONS. I35 

tion was delivered by Solomon Kidder Livermore. There 
was also a celebration of the fourth of July, 1824. 

In 1809, the people joined in a fourth of July celebration at 
Temple. On that occasion, Seth King was Marshal, Benja- 
min Champney, Esq., Vice President, Dr. John Preston, Toast- 
master. 

In 1800, a famous military muster took place, on the level 
ground bordering the Souhegan, on the Hoar farm. It was 
on this occasion that the march called " Ipswich xMuster," was 
brought out, and enjoyed great popularity in the region, for 
many years. 

Besides the sham-fight, the speeches of " Old Boston," the 
negro, &c., was the exhibition of a Bison, from the western 
prairies. The people became displeased at the proprietor, 
from some cause, tore down his shanty, and let the animal 
loose, and then the assembled multitude, horse and foot, 
amused themselves in the attempting to catch him, in which 
they finally succeeded. 

In 1815, the Bethel Lodge of Freemasons was instituted. 
An Oration was delivered by Brother Nathaniel D. Gould, 
and a public dinner was had in a tent constructed of boughs, 
on the green near the centre school house. 

In 1817, the citizens were thrown into great commotion, by 
the sudden seizure of a young lady, supposed to be an orphan, 
who had been placed under the care of Rev. Mr. Hall, by her 
guardian residing in New Orleans, for the purposes of educa- 
tion. Her own mother, who had been divorced from her 
father, and from whom she had been a long time separated, 
had traced her to the town, and unexpectedly made her ap- 
pearance. Having been induced to visit a neighbor's house, 
the child v/as seized and carried to her mother. This 
sudden abduction, of course caused great excitement, and 
was not easily explained. Mr. Hall felt himself responsible 
for the safety of one whose real friends he supposed so far 
distant. His friends felt that he could not be wrong, and 
were zealous in sustaining him ; while others hstened to the 
mother's story, and took sides with her. Much newspaper 
controversy, and an appeal to the laws, supervened, and it 
was several years before the ferment subsided. 



136 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

In 1839, two or three enterprising citizens, in imitation of 
their ancestors, formed the project of colonizing a new town- 
ship in the West. The leader of the enterprize may be 
considered to have been Timothy Fox 3d. In company with 
two others, he selected a township in Iowa, now called Den- 
mark, and in due time was joined by other persons from this 
town. Their first care was to secure those institutions, the 
church, the common school and the Academy, on which they 
felt that their own happiness and success had been based. 
Their own account, given in their letter intended to be read at 
the centennial celebration, is of a most interesting character, 
showing that they have laid foundations which must render 
their settlement a most desirable location, and that their 
success has surpassed all they could have reasonably an- 
ticipated. They have done honor to the fathers and the 
town from whence they sprung. 

The amount of Taxes raised in 1801, was $1632 11, which 
was about one-third the sum levied in 1850. The number of 
tax payers at that time was 272, of which not over fifteen 
now survive. The highest tax payers were Ebenezer Champ- 
ney, $38 33 ; Hon. Charles Barrett, $27 02 ; Charles Barrett, 
Jr., $27,95 : Supply Wilson, Sen., $26 81. 

At the commencement of the century, the principal topics 
of political moment had been settled, the form of government 
had been determined, and was in operation, and all the ma- 
chinery for the administration of town affairs, was instituted. 
The farms were productive, and the energy of the inhabitants 
had enabled them to rise above all the sacrifices they had 
made for liberty. In a moral point of view, however, the first 
ten years of the century will not bear a favorable comparison 
with other periods of our history. Probably there was more 
gaiety, gambling, profanity and hard drinking, at this epoch, 
than at any other. This was, doubtless, chiefly owing to the 
loose and peculiar habits incident to a camp life, to which 
so many of the men had become habituated. In addition to 
this, there was a large class of well educated youiig men, 
whose fathers had a competency, who naturally became some- 
what more gay than iheir fathers had been. Dancing, which 
at anterior and subsequent periods was almost unknown, was 



NEW YEAR'S GIFT. 137 

then a favorite amusement, and was perhaps carried to excess. 
Cards, bowhng, and pitching coppers, were also extensively- 
practised. But the greatest bane to the welfare of the town, 
was intemperance. Taverns, and places where liquor was 
dealt out, were very numerous. The quantity of rum pur- 
chased, as shown by some of the old store account books of 
that day, is almost beyond belief The exhibit of bad debts 
is also in corresponding proportion. Everybody drank more 
or less, from the minister and his deacons, downwards. And 
they drank on all occasions. The doctor could not make a 
visit without being offered his dose of stimulus ; and when his 
patient died, the company assembled at the funeral were all 
expected to stifle their grief, by partaking freely of " o-be-joy- 
ful." After the death of the truly lamented pastor in 1S09, 
we find a vote of the town, to pay the expenses of the fune- 
ral, "viz., dinners and liquors, grave and coffin," &c. And 
on wedding, and other festive connubial occasions, rhe flow 
of ardent corresponded to the flow of animal spirits. No 
one thought of making a friendly call, or doing his shop- 
ping, without enjoying the rites of hospitality in the shape of 
cider, toddy, sling or flip ; and on all working occasions, such 
as raisings and reaping, haying and highways, the '' eleven 
o'clock" and -'four o'clock" were absolutely indispensable 
to man and boy. While this state of things lasted, the con- 
sequences, both to body and estate, are easily conjectured. 
The great majority were in a condition which now a days 
would be called questionable, but which then was considered 
legitimate, because it was the common level, and all saw the 
same horizon. Others, alas, our recollection brings before us 
too many, gradually yielded to alcohol the supremacy, and 
became its victims. Such a condition was not peculiar to this 
town; on the contrary, the people are characterized, by one 
who knew them intimately, as he did also the people of 
neighboring towns, as being remarkable for their good morals. 
He says he never saw, in any other place, such uniform and 
universal industry ; and, though everybody drank, drunken- 
ness was very rare compared with its prevalence in other 
places. 

On New Year's morning, 1802, a small pamphlet was found 
18 



138 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

distributed at almost every man's door. It was entitled " The 
New Year's Gift, or Naughty Folks Reformed ;" by his Honor 
Isaac Iambic. The avowed object of the muse v/as, to 

lash the times, 
Review the folly and the crimes 
Which have transpired within the year, &c. 

Some of the verses, in relation to the Turnpike, have been 
already quoted. Besides this, the management of Singing 
and Singing Schools, and the preceptor of the Academy are 
castigated, with sundry hits at hard drinking, swearing and 
lying, and many other topics. The excitement produced was 
very great, and the efiect was highly beneficial in suppressing 
the follies and quarrels of the citizens. Every one stood in 
terror of Isaac, who had declared that he should do his duty, 
and that every New Year they should have his gift, and 
moreover, that he will 

"tell the truth, but will not spare 
Little or great a single hair ; 
And when you tell a lie or swear, 
Expect your friend Iambic there, 
To write your name, and then to lift 
It into his next Neio Year's Gift." 

The threats of vengeance, from those who had been directly 
alluded to, were loud and long. The sin of authorship was 
laid at many a door, but no satisfactory clue to it was then 
obtained. Indeed, we believe the name of the author has 
never yet been fully disclosed. His two coadjutors were 
faithful, and he so artfully diverted attention by castigating 
himself as well as his father, hinting 

How S 1 B r, the younger, 

In an oration much did blunder, 
that he escaped detection. 

A somewhat similar commotion was produced, a dozen 
years or more afterwards, by the circulation of some verses 
entitled " The Ladies' Looking-Glass," aimed at some of the 
prevalent follies of the day. 

The religious revival in 1810-11, soon after the death of 
Mr. Farrar, made a very extensive and marked impression 
upon the manners and morals of the town. Many of the 
young men became subjects of it ; and, as the code of christian 



THE CENTRAL VILLAGE. 139 

duty and abstinence enforced by Mr. Hall, was of the severest 
kind, everything like laxity and levity was banished as far as 
possible. Professors of religion were expected to maintain 
puritanical gravity and simplicity, and they did so; and every 
restraint was thrown upon the indulgences and hilarity of 
their children. Pious teachers were obtained for the schools, 
and religious exercises were almost universally observed in 
them. The Sabbath was kept with great strictness; and 
though, in our youth, the Sabbath was a day of tedious rest, 
and some of the restraints placed upon us, would, at this day, 
be regarded as verily fanatical, yet we freely acknowledge 
their salutary influence on the habits of after life. 

In 1814, several of the neighboring towns entered into a 
combination, for "the better observance of the Sabbath;" 
and in consequence of it, nine tything-men were chosen in 
this town, who were expected to see that no unnecessary labor 
was performed, that no travelling or any other infraction of 
the day of rest was practised. Several teams and travellers 
were arrested on the turnpike, and detained till Monday. But 
in attempting to enforce their regulations, the tything-men 
soon found themselves involved in lawsuits, and were obliged 
to abandon their laudable designs. 

On the whole, we doubt if a generation of citizens ever 
inhabited the town, before or since, to be compared for intelli- 
gence, sobriety, enterprize and influence, with the congregation 
that sat under the ministry of Mr. Hall. 

At the commencement of the century, the houses in the 
central village were situated around the old meeting house, 
and along the road between it and .ludge Farrar's ; and there 
were the Barrett, Prichard and Foster houses on the road to 
Benjamin Safford's. When the Turnpike was opened, several 
buildings were immediately erected there. John F. Hills 
built a store on the spot occupied by the brick house in 
which Joseph Barrett, Esq., now resides. He afterwards 
removed it across the way, and commenced the brick house 
just before his death. It was completed and occupied for 
several years, by Ephraim Searle. Dr. John Preston, Jr. 
built the house now occupied by E. F. Edwards, and the 
building west of it, which was used as an apothecary's shop, 



140 HISTORY OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY. 

with the hall above for various public purposes. Barrett and 
Chandler built a two story store on the ground now occupied 
by Mr. Saunders. It was afterwards occupied by Samuel 
Batchelder, and was burnt in 1812. Mr. Batchelder then 
erected the brick house, and the brick store at the corner, 
now occupied by Mr. Isaacs. Isaiah Kidder erected the build- 
ing so long occupied as a tavern, for a store, and carried on an 
extensive business there until his death. A little to the east- 
ward, on the turnpike, stood the hayscales, owned by Dr. 
Preston. On the central road no new buildings have been 
erected except the house occupied by Mrs. Clary, which was 
built by James Taft, since resident in Mason Village, and the 
house occupied by Mr. Lee, which stands on the ground 
where Jonathan Dix had his store, and Elijah Towne kept 
tavern. Several buildings have, on the contrary, disappeared. 
A house built by Benjamin Pollard, stood east of the brook, 
on the south side of the road ; the office of the Champneys 
stood on the opposite side. The store of 'Squire Hartwell, 
first occupied by Josiah Rogers, stood on a line with the west 
end of Mrs. Barr's house, facing eastward ; while another 
building stood on the opposite side of the yard, facing west- 
ward, used by Seth King and Stephen Preston, as a Hatter's 
shop. David Hills kept his store in a building running west- 
ward from his house. It had an alarm bell, which announced 
to the people in the house when any one entered the store. 
Barrett and Appleton traded at the corner, near the tanyard. 
The centre school house at first stood on the great rock, oppo- 
site the north east corner of the old burial ground, at the 
corner of 'Squire Preston's orchard. It was removed down 
the hill, about the year 1807, and stood at the corner below 
Mr. Hill's house. There was also a blacksmith's shop, owned 
by Josiah Batchelder, opposite to his house, the same now 
occupied by Col. Peter Clark. A house which stood opposite 
the burial ground, the Dutton house, at the corner of the road 
to the Mill Village, and the Safford house, in the orchard south 
of the Meeting house, were all that existed in that vicinity 
when it was erected. In 1814, two rows of Horse-sheds were 
built, — one running east and west, in the rear of the meeting 
house, — the other running from the burial ground to the 



THE CENTRAL VILLAGE. 141 

Academy. The first range was overturned by the great gale 
in September, 1815, and afterwards reinstated ; the other was 
removed, in the year 1835, and placed in the rear of the 
first range. Each proprietor furnished his proportion of mate- 
rials, and they were framed and finished at common charge. 
Very specific regulations were made by the town respecting 
the terms on which the owners were to hold them, though it 
would appear that very little pains has been taken to enforce 
them, especially those which rendered it imperative on the 
owners to keep the sheds in repair. 

Were we called upon to indicate the palmy days of New 
Ipswich, we should name the first fifteen years of the present 
century. There v/as then greater uniformity of character, 
harmony of feeling, and community of interest, and more 
general prosperity than at any other period. There was 
scarcely a diversity of opinion in politics or religion, and very 
few causes of dissension, of any sort, existed. This cannot 
be said of more recent periods. Ecclesiastical difficulties of 
all sorts, and of no trifling consequence, have sprung up. 
Political differences have augmented, and all the exciting 
topics of the age, such as Temperance, the Wine Question, 
Slavery, Communism, Millerism, &c., have come up in their 
turn, and, as in most other towns throughout New England, 
have found zealots in their behalf, have sown more or less of 
discord for a time, finally settling down into the rational me- 
dium of sober common sense- 



CHAPTER X. 
MEETING HOUSES. 

first meeting house ; second meeting house ; is converted 
to horse sheds ; third meeting house ; contention about 
its location ; about the pew spots; its interior ; sabbath 
customs; fourth meeting house; controversy; the bell; 

SALE TO the church ; baptist meeting house ; UNITARIAN 

meeting house; methodist meeting house. 

The first Meeting-house, built by the Massachusetts Pro- 
prietors, in accordance with their charter, which required that 
a convenient meeting-house for the pubhc worship of God 
should be erected within three years, was erected on what has 
been long known as Judge Farrar's Hill, but designated in 
the early Records as the " Meeting-house Hill." It was nearly 
opposite the head of the Safford Lane. Judge Farrar has 
been heard to say that it was a framed building, though we 
should have expected nothing more than hewn logs. No 
evidence or even tradition exists that it was ever used as a 
sanctuary ; and it was found to have been destroyed during 
the desertion of the town in 1748, probably by accidental 
fires from the burning woods. 

For several years afterwards, the people assembled on the 
Sabbath at private houses, going from place to place as might 
be convenient; until in October 1753, the Proprietors voted 
" to meet for public worship at the house of Joseph Kidder 
for the future." [P. R. 191,] His was a hipped roof house, 
and stood where John Preston, Esq. now resides ; and here 
was the tabernacle for the next five or six years. Very soon 
after the obtaining of the Masonian Charter, however, steps 
were taken for the erection of a Meeting-house ; and as early 
as 1752 it was voted to build one " near the souwest corner of 



SECOND MEETING HOUSE. 143 

Mr. Oliver Proctor's house lott," afterwards the Rev. Mr. Far- 
rar's lot ; but owing to the difficulties which then, as well 
as now, are incident to such an enterprise, the house was not 
built and in a condition to be occupied till six years after- 
wards. After various resolves and re-resolves as to the loca- 
tion and size of the house,* it was finally agreed to set it near 
" the north east corner of Capt. Robert Choate's lott, No. 1 in 
the 10th range," [P. R. 212,] just north of the present Pound, 
and to have it 32 feet long, 22 feet wide and 9 feet posts. 

This being finally settled, a tax of five pounds old tenor on 
each right was laid for the purpose of building the house, most 
of which was paid in lumber ; hemlock boards, shingles and 
clapboards at stated prices, becoming a legal tender. Joseph 
Kidder, Joseph Bates and Capt. Benjamin Hoar were chosen 
a committee to provide materials. They were " directed to 
receive of the proprietors, as they shall deliver at the meeting- 
house plot, good boards and shingles to cover the meeting- 
house last voted, and slit work for the same ; you are further 
directed to see that the work be speedily done by the Proprie- 
tors' Labour to your satisfaction, and on their neglect, you 
are directed to let out the work as you see good ; and you are 
further directed to purchase or receive of the Proprietors, nails, 
glass, &c., for the work, at your discretion ; you are to re- 
ceive good hemlock boards at ten pound per thousand, and 
spruce at twelve pounds a thousand, and good shingles at 
three pound a thousand, and slit work at your discretion." 
[P. R. 210-11.] 

This was in October, 1754 ; and we may infer that the 
work was prosecuted with zeal, inasmuch as a Proprietors' 
meeting was held at the meeting-house (perhaps not in it) on 
the following August, and continued to be holden there at all 
times afterwards. The progress must have been afterwards 

* February 27, 1754. "Voted to set the meeting-house facing the soutli, on 
the southeast corner of Oliver Proctor's lott, joyning to the south west corner of 

Joseph Bates' lott." " Voted to build said meeting-house fifty feet in length 

and forty feet wide and twenty-four feet post." " Voted to set the frame of 

said house up by the tenth of September next." " Voted to let out the hew- 
ing and frameing of said House by the great." " Voted to choose three men 

as a committee to oversee said work. Chosen for said Committee : Capt. Wool- 
son, Timothy Heald and John Button." [P. R. 198.] 

April 22, 1754. " Voted to build a meeting-house twenty-five feet longe, and 
twenty feet in bredth and nine feet stud." [P. R. 200.] 



144 MEETING HOUSES. 

suspended, as in February 1757, it was voted '• to finish the 
meeling-house, except the upper floor." In February 1759, 
more than four years from its commencement and seven years 
after the resolution to build, we may presume that this great 
undertaking was accomplished, and the spacious house was 
ready for its special use. A committee was then chosen, con- 
sisting of Aaron Kidder, Joseph Bates and Ichabod How, to 
" seat the meeting house" ; and they were directed to " seete 
ten persons on each Long Seat, and four on each short one." 
[P. R. 245.] This was a custom of that day, according to 
which every man had a seat assigned him corresponding to 
his dignity and importance. Joseph Kidder was to have two 
dollars for the care of the meeting-house, and for sweeping 
the same. 

It was a small and simple 
structure, far inferior to a 
common country school- 
house of the present day, 
with merely a covering, 
a floor, and with movable 
benches for seats, and an 
unfinished gallery, which, 
with the " nine feet stud," 
we must suppose could only have extended across the gable 
end. We give a cut of it, as it has been represented by one 
who well remembers it. In this house the first minister was 
ordained, and began his long and useful career ; and in it the 
church was organized. 

It had been originally proposed to build a house of much 
larger dimensions ; and the wisdom of this intention soon be- 
came evident : for such was the influx of inhabitants, that, 
with the addition of the galleries, in less than three years the 
place had become too strait for them. In about eight years 
the number of families had more than doubled, and numbered 
upwards of one hundred. So soon as January, 1762, there- 
fore, an article was introduced into the Warrant, " to see if 
they (the Proprietors) will make preparations for Building a 
Meeting-house." [P. R. 264.] The article does not appear to 
have been acted upon at that meeting ; but in July of the same 
year, it was " voted to set the Meeting-house, Avhen it is built, 




THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 145 

on the southeast corner of Mr. Farrar's lot, being No. 37 north 
division, near where the meeting-house now stands." 

" Voted to build a Meeting-house 50 feet long, 40 feet wide, 
and 24 feet post." " Voted to chuse a Committee to receive 
and provide stuff, such as boards, slit-work, shingles, clapboard 
and the like for the Meeting-house. Chosen Mr. Robert Cros- 
by, Mr. John Chandler, Dea. Benjamin Adams and Capt. 
Reuben Kidder." [P. R. 270-71.] 

Another five years of controversy ensued respecting the 
location and dimensions of the house, which was by no means 
the less violent in consequence of the newly-organized town 
government. Two years afterwards, it was voted to build 55 
feet long, 45 wide and 26 feet post, with permission to the 
Committee to make the posts two feet shorter ; the frame was 
to be up, and the outside covered, by the last of September, 
1765. But in March of that year, it was decided to omit the 
building of a Meeting-house this summer or fall ; but the Com- 
mittee were to provide the " materials for the fraim and civer- 
ing and Stones for underpinning the House." In October, 
1765, it was voted not to set up the frame by next June, and 
to add five feet to its length when built. It was also voted to 
raise £60 lawful, for the purchase of " stuff," which might be 
paid in good " marchantable stuff by the first of the following 
November." * 

April 3, 1767, " Voted to Build a Meeting Hous next sumer 
on the place formerly staked out 65 by 45 and 26 feet posts." 
At this time a formidable opposition arose from the inhabitants 
of the south part of the town, who wished to have the house 
located at what is called the Hodgkins corner, which is very 
near the geographical centre of the town, though distant from 
the centre of population. To effect this, they sent a petition 
to the General Assembly of the State requesting interposition 
in their behalf, of which the following is a copy : 

* " On the delivery of good marchantable stuff at the M. H. spot appointed, 
(each man his proportion,) the said committee shall discharge him or them from 
the rate ; and if any part be not paid at the time and place appointed, in stuff, 
the said Rate shall be committed to the Constable to collect for the aforesaid use. 
Also the men who have a mind to get Stuff go to the Com"'« for directions what 
to get ; and that the men formerly agreed with to provide stuff be not allowed to 
get any more than what they have agreed for, nor other, unless it fall to their 
share." [T. R. 20.] 

19 



146 



MEETING HOUSES. 



To His Excellency John Wentworth, Esq., Captain-General, 
Governor and Commander in Chief in and over His Majesty's 
Province of New Hampshire : — The Honorable His Majesty's 
Council and House of Representatives for said Province, in Gene- 
ral Assembly convened : 

The humble Petition of we the Subscribers, Freeholders and Inhab- 
itants of the Town of Ipswich in said Province, shews : — 

That the Inhabitants of said Town are about to Build a Meeting 
house for the Public Worship of God there, & have Lately had a 
Meeting for that Purpose, that it appears the said Inhabitants are 
no ways Likely to Agree on a suitable Place to set the Same, that 
may in any manner Accomodate a very Considerable Number of 
the Said Inhabitants & the best Lands ; that much uneasiness has 
already arisen on Account thereof & more likely to insue, and 
should that be the Case may be the means of hurting or Preventing 
a further Settlement of the Lands now wild in said Town. 

That your Petitioners under a sense of the Great Benefit Arising 
from a Peaceable Neighborhood now in the Infant State of said 
Town — most humbly pray that Your Excellency and Honors would 
Interpose and Take their Peculiar Circumstances into Considera- 
tion & that they may have a Committee to repair to said Town & 
View the Same & Report a proper place, which We pray may be 
final, or Give such other Relief as Your Excellency and Honours 
shall see Meet. And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever 



pray. 

Benja. SafTord, Samuel Kinney, 

Pelatiah Whittemore, Simeon Wright, 



Joseph Pollard, 
James Chandler, 
Hezekiah Cory, 
Wido. Mary Foster, 
John Wheeler, 
Samuel Whittemore, 
Ichabod How, 
Benja. Gibbs, 
Allen Breed, 
Zechariah Adams, 
Thomas Heald, 
Thomas Spaulding. 

The petition was received, and the petitioners were ordered, 
at their own cost, to furnish the selectmen of the town with a 
copy of the petition, and cause the substance of the petition 
and order of the Court to be printed three weeks in the New 
Hampshire Gazette, that any person may appear and show 
cause why the prayer thereof should not be granted. 



Abraham Bennet, 
Andrew Conn, 
Stephen Adams, jr. 
Samuel Wheeler, 
James Foster, 
Simeon Hildrith, 
Eleazer Cummings, 
David Rumrill, 
Andrew Spaulding, 
William Hodgkins, 
Thomas Brown, 



June 27th, 1767. 

Reuben Taylor, 
Joel Crosby, 
John Walker, 
Reuben Hosmer, 
Simeon Fletcher, 
Abraham Esterbrooks, 
Thomas Adams, 
Jesse Carleton, 
Stephen Adams, 
Jacob Gragg, 
Samuel Holden, 
Robert Campbell, 
Josiah Walton. 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 147 

The town thereupon " Voted to send a man to give reasons 
to the Court whi the Petitioners Petition should not be grant- 
ed," and the Selectmen furnished the following certificate to 
show what proportion of the taxable property the petitioners 
represented. 

In a Rate of Three Hundred Pounds the Petitioners, with those 
that Voted with them against Building a Meeting House on the 
Spot where the Town Voted to Build it, Pay Eighty-foure Pounds 
nineteen Shilings to the Same Rate, Exclusive of the Polls. 

Isaac Appleton, \ 
Nath'l Stone, > Selectmen. 
Benja. Hoar, ) 

The Court then adjusted the matter as follows : 

In the House of Representatives, Sept. 22, 1767. 

Upon Hearing the Petitioners on the foregoing Petition and also 
a Com'ee on behalf of the Town against the Petition, it appears that 
sending a Committee will be most Likely to Settle peace in the 
Town : — Therefore, Voted, That Col. John GofFe, John Hale and 
James Underwood Esq"'", be a Committee to Determine the most 
Suitable place for Erecting a Meeting House in said Town and to 
make Report to the General Assembly as Soon as may be. 

M. We are, Clerk. 

The Committee subsequently made the following Report : — 

Agreeable to the within Vote, We have been at the Town of 
New Ipswich, hav^e fully heard and Considered what has been offer- 
ed by all Concerned, Examined the Town Votes and Viewd the 
Situation of the Town ; and from all Circumstances are fully 
Sattesfied that the place where the Meeting House now is, in said 
Town, is the best situation for it to be Continued in, will best Ac- 
commodate the Town and be most Agreeable to the Greatest part 
of the Inhabitants. And accordingly we beg leave so to Report. 
John Goffe, John Hall, James Underwood. 

February 18tk, 1768. 

In the House of Representatives, Feb. 19, 1768. 

Voted : that the foregoing Report of the Committee be Accepted 
and the Place for Setting the Meeting House in said Ipswich 

Established Agreeable thereto. And further. Voted : That the 

Accompt of said Committee for their time and Expense in that 
Business, amounting to three Pounds Sixteen Shillings Lawful! 
Money be allowed, and Paid them by the Selectmen of said Ips- 
wich ; who are Directed to Assess the Inhabitants for the same. 

M. Weare, Clerk. 

In Council, eadem die. Read and concurred. 



148 MEETING HOUSES. 

At various other times besides those here noted, the subject 
of the size and location of the building was agitated. The 
only point gained by this agitation and delay was, that its 
dimensions were from time to time enlarged, until finally it was 
ample enough to meet the prospective increase of the town. 
It was set upon the precise spot at first proposed, and was 60 
by 45 feet on the ground, and 26 feet posts. It was " Voted 
that the Inhabitance find Provision for the Labrows a raising 
the M. H. at the meeting house spot ; also that the Carpinders 
shall chuse the Hands for raising." " Voted the Com'" pro- 
vide Liquor for said Raising." [T. R. 32.] The raising had 
not taken place in November 1767, and doubtless occurred the 
next spring. 

The house being erected and covered, a controversy almost 
equally virulent arose, as to the manner in which the Pew 
ground should be disposed of Some wished to have a Com- 
mittee " to prise the pew spotts and let the highest payers 
have them according to their pay," and others wished to have 
them sold to the highest bidder at public vendue. [T. R. 42.] 
It was finally agreed, Nov. 18, 1768, "that all persons who 
hath a mind to have his proportionable part in the pew 
ground in the New M. H., prefer a Request to the Com'" cho- 
sen to dispose of the Pews at Vendue, by the 25th day instant 
at 9 o'clock in the morning, shall have their proportionable 
part, according to their pay, sett off" to such as Request it." 

" Voted, by Intrest, that all the persons Intrested in the 
New M. H. shall sell the pews (that are not sett off" to such as 
Requested their part) at public Vendue to the highest bidder, 
and have the benefit of the money said pews come to, in pro- 
portion to their pay." [T. R. 47.] 

The amount of each person's interest was determined by 
the Invoice of this and the preceding year ; a plot of the pew 
ground was prepared, the vendue was held on the 25th, and 
four months pay day with good security was given the pur- 
chaser. The pews were sold at prices ranging from £42 to 
£82, the lot next the pulpit stairs being reserved for the 
minister. 

The house being covered and glazed, though not to the sat- 
isfaction of the committee, the process of completion seems to 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 149 

have been suspended during the winter. In March 1769, it 
was voted that the Committee '' proceed to build a pulpit and 
make the Body of Seats, and Seal up the window stools, and 
lathe and plaster to the Gallery girts and so under the Galle- 
rys, and Build the Stairs, and lay the gallery floor and also 
the ministerial Pew, all to be compleated this Summer com- 
ing." [T. R. 55.] 

In January 1770, it was voted to finish the meeting-house 
this present year ; to have a row of pews around the gallery, 
sell them at auction, and apply the proceeds towards the fin- 
ishing of the house. They also voted to paint the interior as 
the committee should •' think proper upon advise of men skill- 
ed in painting." [T. R. 67.] The last recorded act in relation 
to the completion of the house was to build seats on the spaces 
over the stairs, " and the Negroes to set on the Hindmost of 
said seats in each gallery," [T. R. 83] ; though by a subse- 
quent record it appears that they had not been built in 1774. 

Five years of controversy as to the location of the house 
had thus ensued, and three more were consumed in the actual 
construction ; and even long after this, the spirit of opposition 
had not subsided ; for in the warrant for March 1774, an arti- 
cle was introduced, to see if the town would build a new 
meeting-house on the southeast corner of the lot that Capt. 
Thomas Fletcher bought of Odoardo Thomas ; that is, some- 
where near the Hodgkins corner. But the article was passed 
without action. It was immediately occupied, probably before 
it was actually completed, as the old house had been disposed 
of some time previously. The last town meeting called in the 
old meeting-house was that of March 1769, which was ad- 
journed to the new house. No dedication seems to have taken 
place, and the time-honored custom of " seating the meeting- 
house " giving precedence to persons of distinction, was dis- 
pensed with ; and, what was then an innovation, every one 
was allowed to take such of the public seats as he pleased. 
In 1773, the Selectmen were directed to provide a cushion for 
the pulpit. And again, in 1782, it was voted " to exempt 
Mr. William Spear from serving constable in future, in con- 
sideration of his giving a note for twenty dollars to the select- 
men, the money to be appropriated for a cushing for the pulpit 



150 MEETING HOUSES. 

or desk." This cushion was made of a dressed deerskin 
stuffed with feathers ; and after serving as the drum eccle- 
siastic for about twenty-five years, was at last stolen. 

After the completion of the town's meeting-house, the Ma- 
sonian Proprietors, having already contributed liberally to its 
erection, voted also to present the old house to the town. Its 
consecrated walls, in which the church was organized and in 
which its youthful pastor commenced his long and useful 
career, were abandoned without any apparent regrets ; and 
although, in 1775, the constable certifies that he had posted 
his warrant for town meeting at the old meeting-house, " the 
usual place for posting meetings," it was soon disposed of at 
auction to several of the citizens — (Josiah Walton, Hilas Da- 
vis, Josiah Brown, Reuben Brown, William Clary, John Cut- 
ter, Simeon GJould, Benj. Williams) — living in the outskirts of 
the town, stripped of its interior, and converted into horse- 
sheds. One summer night, in 17S9, some of the Academy 
students undertook to overthrow it, and were partially suc- 
cessful. They were detected, and compelled to see that the 
building was made good again ; but in attempting to replace 
it, it fell entirely down, and the culprits had to pay twenty 
shillings each to rebuild it.* The stables were rebuilt, and 



* The following is the account of this affair, as given in Mr. Walton's Journal. 
August 28, 1789, our horse-house assaulted and thrown off the underpinning. 
August 31, said house assaulted by a large number of scholars and nearly thrown 
down. September 1, we requested said scholars to meet us at C'apt. t'letcher's 
for settlement. John Preston, Esq. and Charles Barrett, Esq., met us with a 
large number of scholars ; after considerable conversation the following agree- 
ment was come into, viz., On the scholars part, that the damage done us should 
be made good, — said Preston and Barrett promised on the part of the scholars 
said house should be made good as it was before it was damaged by said schol- 
ars ; an agreement that said Preston, Barrett, with Timothy Fox and Ephraim 
Adams, Jr., say when said house is as good ; if they do not agree, they to choose 
a fifth to join them, — the above said men to fix a time to move said house on to 
Capt. Barrett's land near the pound. But said house fell down ; then it was left 
toCapt. Wheeler what they should do, who brought in they should set up a frame 
36 feet long. We then agreed with Capt. Barrett for six feet longer, for six shil- 
lings, which made forty-two. [Then follows an account of the days' works on 
the new sheds, showing the whole cost to have been jE4.18.8, or 2s. 4d. per foot.] 
Between the fourth and eleventh of July (1790) the stable doors were taken off. 
August 30, three of the said doors set up. September 1, two of said doors gone 
off again. The stable was divided between William Clary, Timothy Fox, Josiah 
Walton, Josiah Brown, Silas Davis, John Brown, Benjamin Williams, Nathan 
Merriam, Ezra Town, Wid". Kidder, Simeon Gould, John Cutter and Isaac 
Clark. 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 



151 



somewhat enlarged, nearly on a line with the old bury in g- 
ground, just above the pound, and stood there more than 
twenty years afterwards. 








O" '•^Nj'\V,) 



" Our meeting-house — our meeting-house, 

It stood upon a hill, 
Where autumn gales and wintry blasts 

Piped round it loud and shrill. 
No maple tree with leafy shade, 

Nor tall, protecting oak, 
Stood near to guard the ancient house 

When tempests round it broke. 

No steeple graced its homely roof, 

With upward-pointing spire ; 
Our villagers were much too meek 

A steeple to desire. 
And never did the welcome tones 

Of Sabbath morning bell, 
Our humble village worshippers 

The hour of worship tell." 

The old meeting-house and the old church-yard are revered 
objects in every place ; and as our " old meeting-house " is 
dear to the memory of many persons still living, and may 
be an object of curiosity to those of fewer years, a description 
of it, as it arises to the mind's eye, together with some of the 



152 



MEETING HOUSES. 



customs of worship which prevailed during its days of glory, 
may not be unwelcome : and will also be the best method we 
can adopt for presenting some of the most important features 
of the town history. 

At the time of its erection it was the largest building within 
twenty miles. It stood on the brow of the hill, just north of 
the old burying-ground, facing the south ; and as the land in- 
clined rapidly towards the east, that end had around it a 
wharf or wall of uncemented stones about six feet wide and 
nearly as high. This was built in the year 1790. At the 
northeast corner was a large stone, which was used as a horse- 
block. There was neither tower nor portico ; the exterior was 
never painted, and of course presented the weathered and 
dusky appearance usual under such circumstances. The 
windows were small, with heavy sashes, and panes of 7 by 9 
glass. The doors were single and composed of numerous 






I 



o o 



m 



m 



pannels. There were three entrances, one at each end, and 
one in front, with aisles crossing the centre at right angles, 
and also one surrounding the house next to the wall pews. 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 153 

Opposite to the front door was the pulpit ; and in each of the 
front corners was a flight of stairs leading to the galleries. 
The posts were very large, extending the whole height of the 
house, and projecting into the house ; towards the top, where 
they were to receive the beams, they were enlarged, somewhat 
like the capital of a column. The walls were plastered, 
though never whitewashed ; and as they were never tarnished 
by fires or lights, they maintained a very respectable air of 
cleanliness. The galleries were lofty, resting on columns 
about a foot in diameter. The breastwork of the gallery was 
composed of large pannels and ornamented with a heavy cor- 
nice. This, together with the posts, was painted of a name- 
less color approaching somewhat to poppy-red, and grained in 
imitation of marble or mahogany. There was a row of wall 
pews, twenty-four in number, surrounding the house both 
above and below. The body of the house was divided into 
two portions by the transverse aisle. On the half next the 
door were twelve square pews, esteemed the best in the house, 
while on the half next the pulpit were long seats extending on 
either side, from the broad aisle to the side aisles. They were 
not like the slender, sloping, sofa-like slips of the present day, 
but good substantial benches, made of thick plank and capped 
with good-sized joists. The galleries were furnished with 
similar seats. The pews were occupied by the principal fam- 
ilies, while the long seats were free to all, and were occupied 
by what might be called the common people. Over the stairs, 
at the southwest and southeast corners, were the negroes' seats. 
The pulpit was lofty, and the ascent to it was by a flight of 
stairs outside, with a balustrade of curiously twisted balusters. 
It had a recess or rostrum in which the speaker stood ; behind 
him was a curtainless arched window ; above him was a 
curious gilded canopy, about six feet in diameter, resembling 
in form a turnip cut in two transversely. It was called a 
sounding-board, and hung near the speaker's head by a slen- 
der iron rod from the ceiling, so slender as to have excited 
apprehensions and speculations in many a youthful mind as 
to the probability of its falling ; — and beneath him, in front of 
the pulpit, were the deacons' seats, in a sort of pen, where 
they they sat facing the congregation, with the communion 
20 



154 MEETING HOUSES. 

table hanging by hinges in front of them. The pews were 
about six feet square ; their walls were high, having also a 
railing of little balusters around the top ; a row of hard, un- 
cushioned seats surrounded the interior, and often there were 
two or three high-backed flag-bottomed chairs in the centre. 
The seats were hung by hinges, so that they might be turned 
up, as the congregation rose at prayers, as was the goodly 
custom of our fathers ; and the slam-bang, as they were turn- 
ed carelessly down again, at the close of prayers, not unlike 
a volley of musketry, was no inconsiderable episode in the 
ceremonies. 

Behold now the congregation, as it assembles on the Sab- 
bath. Some of them are mounted on horses ; the father, with 
his wife or daughter on a pillion behind him, and perhaps 
also his little boy astride before him. They ride up to the 
stone horse-block and dismount. The young men and maid- 
ens, when not provided with horses, approach on foot. They 
have worn their every-day shoes until just before coming in 
sight, and have there exchanged them for their clean calfskins 
or morocco, having deposited the old ones in some unsuspected 
patch of brakes, or some sly hole in the wall. They carry in 
hand a rose or a lilac, a pink, a peony or a pond-lily, (and 
this was the whole catalogue of flowers then known) or what 
was still more exquisite, a nice bunch of caraway seeds. 
Instead of this, in winter, they bear a tin foot-stove, contain- 
ing a little dish of coals which they have carefully brought 
from home or filled at some neighboring house ; and this was 
all the warmth they were to enjoy during the two long hours 
of the service. They have come a long distance on ox-sleds, 
or perhaps have skimmed over the deep, untrodden snow on 
rackets. They enter the house, stamping the snow from their 
feet and tramping along the uncarpeted aisles with their cow- 
hide boots. Let us enter with them. The wintry blast 
howls around and shrieks among the loose clapboards ; the 
half-fastened windows clatter ; and the walls reecho to the 
thumping of thick boots, as their wearers endeavor to keep up 
the circulation in their half frozen feet, while clouds of vapor 
issue from their mouths ; and the man of God, as he raises 
his hands in prayer, must need protect them with shaggy 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 155 

mittens. So comfortless and cold, it makes one shudder to 
think of it. In summer, on the contrary, the sun blazes in, 
unscreened by blind or curtain ; the sturdy farmer, accustom- 
ed to labor all day in his shirt sleeves, takes the liberty to lay 
aside his coat in like manner for the more serious employ- 
ments of the sanctuary: especially is this the case with the 
singers, who have real work to perform. 

Every man is in his appropriate place ; for it was little less 
than sacrilege, in the days \vhen the Sabbath was kept with 
all puritan gravity and severity, to stay away from meeting, 
let the weather be what it might. See the row of hats hang- 
ing upon pegs in front of the gallery. There in the body pews, 
on the right hand of the broad aisle, are Kidder, Cummings, 
Fox, Spear and Fletcher ; on the left are Merriam, Barrett, 
Breed, Moses Tucker, Abijah Smith ; in the large corner pews 
at the northeast and northwest are Ephraim Adams and Dix 
or Batchelder, and between them and the pulpit are Farrar, 
Benjamin Adams, Nathan Cutter and Eleazer Cummings, 
Hoar, Start, and the minister's pew ; along the eastern side 
are Knowlton, Appleton and Holden : along the west wall 
are Mansfield, Knights, Champney and Hills ; and in front 
are Brown, Heald, Preston, Spaulding and others. In the 
western gallery are Walton, Pollard, Bates, Joseph Kidder, 
Whittemore and Wheat ; in the eastern are Goold, Parker, 
Cutter, Barr, Robbins and Brooks ; and in the front gallery 
Stephen Adams, Francis Fletcher and others. Adams, Ap- 
pleton and Chandler are in the deacons' seats; a goodly band 
of veterans occupies the long seats below, while the rising 
generation sits in those in the gallery ; and Patience and Ro- 
sanna, and Cesar and old Boston occupy the negroes' seats. 

The prayers are offered ; and during the long prayer, and 
long indeed it was, a pause is made at a certain stage of it, 
for those who choose to sit down. The sermon begins, and 
advances by regular approach up to Sthly and even to IGthly, 
the elderly men, unaccustomed to long sittings, occasionally 
standing erect or stretching over the breastwork of the gallery 
to relieve the fatigue of their position ; Tate and Brady is 
lined off, two lines at a time, by a person selected for the pur- 
pose, and sung with good nasal twang and hearty good will 



156 MEETING HOUSES. 

to some good old St. Anns or St. Martins ; and, finally, the 
benediction is pronounced. The congregation still remains in 
its place to go out in prescribed order : first the minister — and 
as he passes the deacons, they follow — then those in the front 
seat below, and at the same time those in the front gallery 
seat and those in the pews — then those in the second seat, 
and so on in successive order. Would that a like decorum in 
this respect could be substituted for the impatient and irrev- 
erent rush of modern days ! They separate for a short inter- 
mission and to despatch their lunch of dough-nuts or apples ; 
in summer they stroll in the graveyard, to hold silent converse 
with those who sleep there, and impress the lesson of their 
own mortality ; and in winter those from a distance take re- 
fuge before the blazing hearth of some friend in the village, 
and are perhaps regaled by a hospitable mug of cider ; and 
soon all are reassembled for the afternoon service. 

After this, they wend their way home, to partake of a 
hearty warm dinner, the best of the week, in most instances 
too, prefaced by an exhilerating draught of hot toddy, and 
finally to " say the Catechism." That Westminster Assem- 
bly's Catechism ; who that was trained in the early part of 
the century shall forget it ! Its pictorial alphabet of aphorisms, 

In Adam's fall we sinned all ; 

My Book and heart shall never part, — 

the story of John Rogers ; Agur's Prayer ; and Dialogue be- 
tween Youth, Christ and the Devil ; — it was the only book 
besides the Bible and Psalm Book allowed in the hands of 
youth on the Sabbath. The "Catechism concluded the reli- 
gious observance of the day. Then the children were let 
loose, and in summer, all the family walked over the farm to 
observe the crops and salt the cattle. 

As those who were actors in these almost forgotten scenes 
recall them, with a thousand associations which it is impossi- 
ble to recount, it must seem almost a dream ; and those who 
are now in the morning of life would doubtless smile could 
these old times and customs be but once presented in reality. 
But they were good old times ; and the Sabbath and the sanc- 
tuary were then regarded with a strictness and reverence 
which we should be glad to see approached in our day. 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 157 

Of the history of this, our "old meeting-house," very httle 
more remains to be recorded. In 1790 it was voted to wharf up 
the meeting-house and to prime the window frames. In 1792 
a proposition to raise money for a stove was negatived. In 
1800 it was voted to shingle the meeting-house, to repair the 
clapboarding and underpinning, and board up the back of the 
seats in the galleries. Further repairs were proposed in 1808, 
but not agreed to ; and in fact the house had become so much 
dilapidated, and so much dissatisfaction had always existed 
as to its location, that a meeting was called towards the close 
of the year 1809, to " see if the town will take down the old 
meeting-house and set it in some more convenient place." 
This was not done however, but a new one was ultimately 
built. The old house was subsequently used for town meet- 
ings, and also by the Baptists as a place of worship. In 1810 
a part of the roof was taken off by a gale, and was repaired. 

" Alas ! there came a luckless day, 

Our meeting-house grew old — 
The paint was worn — the shingles loose, 

In winter 'twas too cold ; 
They called it an old-fashioned thing, 
And said it must be sold." 

In 1816 a committee was chosen to value the pews and the 
proportion to each proprietor, and dispose of said meeting- 
house, either by repairing it for a town-house, by selling it as 
it now stands, or by taking it down and selling it in lots or 
otherwise, as shall appear most conducive to the interests of 
said town and the pewholders . 

It was finally demolished in 1816, and the materials were 
employed in building the present town-house and academy. 
The window frames and windows are the same ; the twisted 
balusters of the railing to the stairs of the academy are the 
same which ornamented the stairs of the meeting-house. 
The cornice and wood work of the western hall were taken 
from the gallery breastwork; the base of the sounding-board 
was also placed in the western wall ; and the pine cone which 
crowns the cupola is the same which surmounted the sound- 
ing-board. 

It had stood for forty-eight years. Under its roof had been 



158 MEETING HOUSES. 

performed many solemn ceremonies, and had been gathered 
in the fruits of two glorious revivals. It still stands, in all its 
dusky grandeur, in memory's eye ; but alas, it has already 
become an antiquity to the rising generation ; its foundations 
have been removed, the plough has levelled the sacred spot, 
and there is scarcely a trace left to tell us where it actually 
stood. 

A controversy, no less virulent than those which preceded 
it, arose in regard to the location of the fourth or present 
Meetinghouse ; and as there were now more interests to be re- 
conciled, so the prospect of agreement was the more doubtful. 
All were aware that the old house was far from the geogra- 
phical centre of the town, and probably from the centre of 
population also. The residents of the south, therefore, availed 
themselves of these facts, as well as the experience they had 
so long had of the tedious ascent of the old burial-ground 
hill, as arguments for a change of location in their favor ; 
■while those of the north, with the advantage of those in pos- 
session, and with an equal dread of traversing the hill, made 
strong endeavors that the old location should be retained. 
The spots which were the subjects of contention were the old 
one, — the Hodgkins or Mansfield corner, and the place where 
the house now stands. A large committee of persons from 
different parts of the town was chosen to consider the subject, 
and report. In June 1810, they recommended an admeasure- 
ment of the town to ascertain the centre of travel, "and to 
define and determine the bounds of individual rights, as the 
most likely method to prevent and extinguish mutual jealousies 
of a design to encroach upon the same." This survey was 
ordered ; and a second report, founded upon it, was made. 
The committee gave as their opinion, that the least amount of 
travel would be required to the spot where the meeting house 
then stood; but "that it is more equally proportioned to the 
different parts of the town near the widow Mansfield's.'' On 
the whole, they were in favor of removing the old house and 
setting it on the land of Samuel Button, a little north-west of 
the spot now occupied by the meeting house. The town re- 
jected the report, and, by a small majority, voted to take down 
the old house and set it up near where Mr. Reuben Taylor 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 159 

now lives. This was strongly protested against by the mi- 
nority. It would be useless to attempt to follow the manoeu- 
verings of the town through all the resolutions and reconsider- 
ations, and remonstrances and replies of twenty-two meetings 
on this subject. .Suffice it to say, that at a meeting on the 
spot, it was voted to build on Samuel Button's land. Fifty- 
two individuals, mostly from the southwest and northwest 
parts of the town, signified their determination, in writing, 
not to pay taxes to build on the ground designated. Finally, 
in August, 1811, it was agreed to leave the decision to an im- 
partial committee ; and Col. Jos. Wilder of Rindge, Samuel 
Smith of Peterborough, and Daniel Searle of Temple were 
appointed, and in November reported in favor of the spot where 
the house now stands ; nearly the precise spot first proposed. 

The plan of the house was drawn by Seth Nason, Esq. 
Its dimensions were to be 92 by 69 feet ; and the building of 
it was disposed of at auction to Cummings Fletcher, for 
^5,480. Mr. Fletcher sold his contract to Seth Wheeler, Esq. 
who commenced the work early in 1812. The raising of the 
frame was commenced on election day, and occupied the whole 
of three days. It was done under the direction of two skillful 
master workmen, Capt. Rofle of Ashby, and Mr. John But- 
man. The hands employed upon the frame were all picked 
men, and no others were allowed to assist. No accident oc- 
curred. A great assemblage of people was gathered on the 
occasion. Every body in town was present, and great num- 
bers from the neighboring towns. Great jollity and frolic was 
kept up during the three days ; booths were erected, and 
toddy and punch were dealt out with a profusion that would 
be deemed scandalous in these days of temperance pledges. 

The dissatisfaction as to the locality of the house had not 
materially subsided, and was much increased when the se- 
lectmen sold, to Seth Wheeler, all the pews excepting five, 
for the sum of ^4,800, the town conveying them all to him, 
and paying him the $700 difference between this sum and the 
contract price for building the house. Of the 97 pews con- 
veyed to him, it appears by the deeds that he sold 57 for 
$4512, having still forty pews left. 



160 



MEETING HOUSES. 




The house was completed early 
in 1813, and far exceeded in dimen- 
sions, elegance and convenience any- 
other house, in the vicinity. It is 
said to have been the second church 
edifice in this region in which the 
modern slips were introduced, in 
place of the square pews, Park 
street meetinghouse in Boston, after 
which the interior was modelled, 
being the first. The dedication was 
appointed; and after an unavailing 
attempt on the part of the malcon- 
tents, was held on the 11th March. 
Supply Wilson, Jr., John Everett, Seth King, Seth Wheeler 
and Peter Felt were appointed a committee of arrangements. 
The sleighing was good, and the concourse of people was very 
great. Rev. Richard Hall preached the sermon from Genesis 
xxviii. 17. " This is none other but the House of God, and 
this is the gate of Heaven." Some of those who were dis- 
affected intimated that the preceding portion of the verse 
" how dreadful is this place," would have been more appro- 
priate. At the close of the services, the moderator read cer- 
tain rules which were to be observed by those attending wor- 
ship, some of which are recollected. Hats were not to be 
hung on the outside of the gallery breastwork, as had been 
the custom in the old house ; dogs were not to be allowed to 
accompany their masters to the pews ; the congregation was 
requested not to wait, after services, for the minister to leave 
the house first. The town seems to have repented of having 
taken off" this latter restraint, for in 1818 a committee was 
chosen to make regulations respecting leaving the meeting 
house after public worship. 

In 1815, a few individuals by private subscription, raised 
the sum of ^.593 for the purchase of a bell ; and, at a meeting 
of the subscribers,* they voted unanimously, "that the Bell 

* The subscribers were Timothy Farrnr, Ephraim ITartwell, Francis Cragin, 
Richard Hail, John Preston, Samuel Batchelder, Natiianiel D. Gould, Timothy 
Fox, .If., Jeremiah Pritchard, Supply Wilson, Solomon Fastabrook, John Sbal- 



THIRD MEETING HOUSE. 161 

be presented to the town of New Ipswich for the use of the 
inhabitants forever ; — on condition that they cause the same 
to be rung on Sabbath days for pubhc worship, and on each 
week day at noon and at nine o'clock in the evening, and 
such other hours as the selectmen may direct, also on public 
days and for funeral services." For two or three weeks 
after its elevation to the belfry, it was kept ringing almost 
incessantly, day and night. For thirty-six years its peals 
have welcomed the Sabbath and invited to the house of God ; 
they have daily marked the flight of time, and have already 
tolled the knell of a whole generation, who now crowd the 
then new burying-ground, among whom are forty of the sixty- 
eight subscribers ; fourteen others have removed to other towns, 
five of whom are known to have died, and fourteen only sur- 
vive in town. 

In 1821, leave was granted to place a stove in the house, 
provided some one be appointed by the selectmen to take 
proper care of it. It cost about seventy dollars, and stood di- 
rectly in front of the pulpit. 

In 1832 the town voted to sell the house, with the exception 
of the belfry and steeple, to the Congregational church and 
society. This reservation was made on account of the bell. 
A committee of three was appointed from each religious society 
" to sell the town right to the Congregational church and so- 
ciety ; and if said committee and said society cannot agree on 
the price, said committee is authorized to agree with a com- 
mittee from said society on appraisers, and to convey the town 
rights for such sum as said appraisers may agree upon." 
Isaac Adams, Eleazer Brown, Joseph Barrett, Col. Sanderson, 



tuck, Jr., Joseph Davis, Joel Davis, John Everett, Supply Wilson, Jr., Stephen 
Wheeler, Solomon Davis, John Wilson, Seth Nason, Jesse Holton, Eleazer 
Brown, Peter Felt, Moses Davis, Abigail Davis, John IButman, Stephen Spauld- 
ing, Charles Barrett, Josiah Batchelder, Benjamin Champney, James Locke, 
John F. Hills, Moody Adams, Newton Willey, Isaac Appleton, Caleb Campbell, 
James Spaulding, Abel Shattuck, Abner Chickering, John Pratt, Isaac Warren, 
Samuel Taylor, Josiah Wilkins, Daniel Jefts, William Prichard, Jonas Champ- 
ney, Eben. Champney, Aaron Brown, Joseph Cragin, Seth Wheeler, John Apple- 
ton, Rogers Chandler, Earl Boynton, Margaret Fletcher, Zebedee Taylor, Eph- 
raim Fairbanks, Hepsey Kidder, Mary Appleton, Samuel Holden, Benjamin 
Adams, Jr., Benjamin Davis, Nathan Merriam, Luther Parker, John Gould, Jr., 
James Chandler, Isaac Adams, Daniel Spaulding, Loanmii Hartshorne, John 
Binney. 

21 



1(52 MEETING HOUSES. 

Deacon Sanderson, Francis Shattuck, Charles Barrett, John 
Preston and J. W. Bhss were chosen. It was originally 
panited cream-color, and had a very neat appearance ; but 
when it became necessary to apply a new coat, the dirty and 
dismal coating of yellow ochre was put upon it, which has 
for many years past annoyed the eyes of every beholder. It 
has now stood thirty-eight years, and while as many precious 
seasons have been enjoyed within its walls as within those of 
any other house during that period, it has also been the 
theatre of controversies such as were never known under the 
roof of its predecessor. Its present dilapidated appearance 
indicates that at no distant day it must give place to another ; 
when we may anticipate that another prolonged controversy 
as to its location will arise, which will probably result as the 
other three have done, in placing the house precisely where 
it may be first proposed.* 

Baptist Meeting House. In 1815 a house was erected for 
the use of the Baptist Society, by Deacon Aaron Brown, and 
chiefly at his own expense. After the incessant and uncom- 
promising opposition which the leading men of this society, 
together with those who afterwards associated with them, had 
made to the location of the new meeting house, as altogether 
abusive to the clearest rights, and as imposing upon them an 
amount of travel very unreasonable, it was a matter of no 
small surprise that a building spot was selected as near to the 
one they had so long and stoutly contended against, as well 
could bs. It was on the north side of the road to the Mill 
Village, a few rods from the Academy corner. It was a small, 
plain structure, of the barn style : and there it stood thirty-five 
years, till it had become well nigh a ruin. In 1850 it was 
taken down and removed to its present location, at the centre 
of the village, decidedly tiie most desirable location that could 
have been selected. A basement and steeple have been added, 
and it is now an ornament to the village. 

* It is pleasant to be able to state, that since this was written, the proprietors 
of the house, with most commendable zeal and unanimity, have at a very consid- 
erable expense entirely remodelled it, by raising the floor so as to have a base- 
ment story for a lecture room and town hall, by building a new and beautiful 
spire, and by carpets, cushions, and other conveniences rendering it in every 
respect as comfortable and elegant as other houses of the time. 



UNITARIAN MEETING HOUSE. 163 

Unitarian Meeting House. In 1833, a small brick meeting 
house was erected in Souhegan Village, chiefly at the expense 
of Charles Barrett, Esq,, for a Unitarian society. It stood on 
the north side of the turnpike, a little north of the high bridge. 
After the death of Mr. Barrett, and the destruction of the fac- 
tory by fire, it was sold to the Methodists in 1840, and re- 
moved to the centre village, near the northeast corner of the 
burying ground, where it now stands. 

A new Methodist meeting house has been recently erected 
between the two upper factory villages, chiefly by subscrip- 
tion ; and their house in the centre village is about to be occu- 
pied by the Second Congregational Church. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

EARLY PROVISION FOR PREACHING ; CALL. TO PETER POWERS ; TO 
DELIVERANCE SMITH ; TO STEPHEN FARRAR ; HIS SETTLEMENT ; 
FORMATION OF THE CHURCH ; THE COVENANT ; ORIGINAL MEM- 
BERS ; DEACONS ; REVIVAL OF MDCCCLXXXV.; DEATH OF MR. FAR- 
RAR ; CALL TO EXPERIENCE PORTER ; CALL AND SETTLEMENT OF 
RICHARD hall; HIS ILL HEALTH AND RESIGNATION; SETTLEMENT 
OF JOSEPH R. BARBOUR ; OF CHARLES WALKER ; OF SAMUEL LEE ; 
RETROSPECT. 

No sooner had our ancestors provided for themselves a 
sheher, and had secured the preparation of their daily food, 
than, in the true spirit of the pilgrim fathers, their next care 
was to provide for the united and public worship of God, 
whom they had doubtless habitually worshipped in a more 
private manner. Most of the first settlers were members of 
churches in the towns from whence they came, and would 
not remain long without hearing the sound of the Gospel. 

At their meeting in 1750, the Proprietors appropriated £46, 
old tenor, " for preaching in the fall of the year; " and chose 
Joseph Stevens and Reuben Kidder a committee " to provide 
a proper person to preach." Although two years afterwards 
(1752) £150 old tenor were voted " to pay for what preach- 
ing there had been, and to be laid out in preaching for the 
futer;" and also '-to have constant preaching hereafter," it 
would appear that it was enjoyed only about one third part 
of the time, until 1755. In 1754 it was voted " to hire two 
months preaching in six months next coming, and no more." 
[P. R. 205.] Who the preachers were, that occasionally 
officiated, we have no record of It would seem that among 
them was a Mr. Worcester ; for in 1757, one of the articles 
for the action of the Proprietors was, "to see if the Propric- 



CALL TO REV. PETER POWERS. 165 

tors will make Mr, Woster * any consideration for sum bad 
money that he received of the Treasurer for his preaching 
with us;" and it was voted not to do so. The Rev. Daniel 
Emerson, one of the proprietors, evidently preached occasion- 
ally ; and once applied for exemption from taxes on account 
of his preaching, which was refused him. Another preacher 
must have been Mr. Peter Powers of Mollis ; for, after observ- 
ing the first Wednesday in January as ''a day of fasting and 
prayer to God, for his directing of us in the choice of a min- 
ister," [P. R. 212,] it was voted Feb. 1755, "to proceed to 
settle a minister; " and subsequently, " that Mr. Peter Powers 
be our gospel minister," [P. R. 215.] Joseph Stevens and 
Ephraim Adams were chosen to apply to Mr. Powers, "and 
make some proposials to him about his settleing with us, and 
hear his reply, and make Report at the Adjournment of this 
meeting." They were also directed " to hire Mr. Powers to 
preach with us hear in this place till the adjournment of this 
meeting," [P. R. 215.] A difficulty in the way of Mr. Pow- 
ers was, that he did not hold to the half-way covenant, 
which was at that time almost universally accepted; that is 
to say, according to his principles, " he would not admit any 
to the rite of baptism without they come to full commu- 
nion." The people at first demurred to this view of the 
subject, and voted not to comply with his principles. Subse- 
quently, however (May 27, 1755) with somewhat elastic con- 
sciences, they voted " to superceed or make void the vote, 
passed at our last meeting, of our not complying with Mr. 
Powers' principles concerning baptism." [P. R. 218.] They 
then voted to give him £400 old tenor, in passable bills, for 
"a settlement ; " and also to give him £400 old tenor, equal 
to about £40 silver, for a salary, with thirty cords of wood 
yearly.! 

* This was Rev. Francis Worcester of Holiis, afterwards settled at Sandwich, 
Mass. 

t As an example of the very unsettled state of the currency at that time, the 
vote on this occasion will show. The pay was to be £400 old tenor in passable bills 
of this or the neighboring Colonys or equal theirto in any other passable bills that 
shall or may be made in this or the neighboring Provinces, said Bills to be passa- 
ble in this Province ; or £40 lawful silver money of the Province of Massachu- 
setts Bay, said silver to be the standard, and either of them to be a tender for 
said payment, &c. [P. R. 219.] Also, the same year it vvas voted that "any 
person who paid a dollar to the treasurer should have £6.10.5. old tenor, dis- 
charged on his part of tax." P. R. 237.] 



166 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

Mr. Powers then accepted the call in the terms of the fol- 
lowing letter : 

New Ipswich, July 29, 1755. 

To the Members of Churches residing in the township of New 
Ipswich, together with the rest of the Propriety of said township. 

Christian Brethren and Friends. Whereas it has pleased God, 
in the course of his Providence to bring me among you; and like- 
wise to incline your hearts to give me a call to the work of the 
evangelical Ministry among you, and to take the oversight of you 
in the name of the Lord. I have upon mature deliberation consid- 
ered the matter, and have determined to accept of the call ; being, 
as I apprehend, called of God to do it ; and it is my desire, if I am 
not deceived, as well as prayer to Almighty God, that I may come 
to you in the fulness of the Blessing of Christ ; and that it may be 
my greatest concern to know Jesus Christ and him crucified among 
you. And I hope and expect that you will be helpers together 
with me, by Prayer ; and that it will be our endeavor on both sides 
to live together in Love, Peace and Unanimity, that the God of 
Love and Peace may dwell with us ; and that we shall seek each 
others Good and Benefit for Soul and Body, for time and eternity. 
And I expect of you, my friends, a comfortable and Gospel Mainte- 
nance, that so I may give my selfe to the service of your souls, 
which if you neglect to do, will you not thereby greatly hinder my 
Usefulness among you ? Thus it appears to me ; and accordingly 
I shall look upon it that I am at my Liberty to leave you, for it is 
not Reason that I should leave the word of God and serve Tables. 

I am your friend and servant in the Gospel of Christ, 

Peter Powers. 

The second Wednesday in November ensuing was fixed for 
the ordination, and a council of nine Ministers and Churches 
was called. Mr. Joseph Kidder was engaged to provide vic- 
tuals and entertainment for the ministers and delegates,* and 
all other arrangements were duly made. 

Mr. Powers, however, seems not to have been altogether 
satisfied with the selected ordaining council, and proposed 
that his ordination should be deferred, and a new council 
chosen. This request the Proprietors did not see fit to grant ; 
and Mr. Powers, at his desire, was released from his engage- 

* The pastors were, Rev. Joseph Emerson of Maulden, Rev. Daniel Emerson 
of Mollis, Rev. Caleb Trowbridge ofGroton, Rev. Daniel Bliss of Concord, Rev. 
Phinehas Hemingway of Townshend, Rev. Joseph Emerson of Pcpperell, Rev. 
Daniel Rogers of Littleton, Rev. Willard Hall of Westford, Rev. David Stearns 
of Lunenburg. 



CALL TO DELIVERANCE SMITH. 167 

ment. Anotlier attempt was made, the following year, to 
settle Mr. Powers, with the further inducement that he 
should receive the addition of £100 old tenor to his salary, 
when there should be seventy families in town. But it seems 
to have been difficult to please him, and he made such requisi- 
tions that the people could not comply with them. On receiv- 
ing from him the following laconic note, " Gentlemen : Please 
to discharge me from all obligation I am under to you by vir- 
tue of my answer to the call you gave me to settle with you 
in the ministry, and you will much oblige your friend, Peter 
Powers," — they concluded to settle with him in full, which 
they did, by paying him £2G old tenor, on account of the de- 
preciation of money. 

Feb. 24, 1757. Timothy Heald, Benjamin Hoar and Icha- 
bod How, the committee to hire preaching, were ordered that 
they should "hier no more than four Sabbaths, without giv- 
ing the Inhabitants opertunity to manifest there minds to said 
committee ; and shall not hier a minister contrary to ye minds 
of the major part of the Proprietors." [P. R. 233.] 

In October, 1757, a call was given to Deliverance Smith, 
with a settlement and salary still greater than had been offer- 
ed to Mr. Powers ; but he seems not to have entertained the 
invitation, as no communication from him is on record, though 
it is evident that he preached more than one Sabbath, for we 
find it voted, Aug. 28, 1758, "to allow Reuben Kidder out of 
the treasury, the four dollars paid to Mr. Smith for his last 
day's preaching, for those that paid said money." [P. R. 243.] 

Feb. 22, 1759. " Voted to give Joseph Stevens £9. 95. in 
silver, old tenor, for going to Concord to hier a preacher, and 
to Townshend to wait on Mr. Farrar up ; and for going to 
Cambridge, £7. 4^. silver, old tenor ; £2. 10s. like tenor, for 
going to Chelmsford on the like business." 

Nov. 26, 1759. At a meeting of the Proprietors, " Rev. 
Daniel Emerson presiding, and after solemn supplication, 
Voted by Proxes, and chosen Mr. Stephen Farrar to be our 
Gospel minister in this place." 

" Voted, to give Mr. Stephen Farrar £40 starling money of 
Grate Britton in adition to the first Minister Rite of Land in 
this Place, if he settles in the ministry in this place," 



168 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

"Voted, to give Mr. Stephen Farrar forty pounds starling, 
as afor-said, for a yearly Sallery, so long as he continues a 
Gospel minister amongst us." 

" Voted to add to Mr. Farrar' s Sallery five Pounds Starling, 
to be paid yearly, when there is Eighty families ; and five 
Pounds starling more, to be paid yearly, when there is one 
hundred famelies settled in this place, said adition to continue 
so long as he does the work of a Gospel minister in this place, 
and no longer." 

" Voted to give Mr. Stephen Farrar thirty Cord of good 
Wood, cord-wood length, to be delivered at his house anualy, 
if he settles in this place." 

" Voted that the Comtee apointed to hier preching shall in- 
form Mr. Farrar of our Call and the Conditions of the same." 
[P. R. 252.] 

On the 30th of July, 1760, at a meeting of the Proprietors, 
and after solemn supplication, Mr. Stephen Farrar proceeded 
to make the following answer to his invitation : 

Gentlemen, — I have received your call, by the hand of your 
Committee appointed for that purpose, manifesting your unanimous 
choyce of me to the settlement in y^ Gospel Ministry amongst you 
in this place. 

I have, as was my duty, taken this Call of yours into due and 
serious consideration, and having (as I trust) asked Counsel and 
direction of God, in this important affair, I now return my answer 
to this invitation, and publish to you my acceptance of your Call, 
and cheerfully devote myself to the service of God in the Gospel of 
his Son amongst you, and do now stand ready to be introduced into 
the work to which I am now called, and to be consecrated to the 
Pastoral Office, I would thankfully acknowledge the sufficient 
provision you have made for my maintenance, and do testify my 
desire to rest satisfied therewith, with an humble dependence upon 
a kind Providence ; and as the Providence of God has cast my lot 
at a distance from my Relations, in order to remove, in some meas- 
ure, the Burden arising from this account, I would request Liberty 
to be absent from you a number of Sabbaths, as you shall see 
convenient, — the only alteration of your proposals that I desire. 
Finally, it is my hearty Desire that we may never have occasion 
to repent of these appointments of Providence, that we may be mu- 
tual comforts and blessings to each other. 

Stephen Farrar. 

In compliance with his request, it was stipulated that he 



ORDINATION OF MR. FARRAR. 169 

might have Hberty to be absent three Sabbaths yearly, if he 
pleased, — a privilege of which he rarely availed himself 

The ordination of Mr. Farrar was appointed for Wednes- 
day, Oct. 22, and the following churches and elders were sent 
to, to assist at the service, viz., Mr. Stearns of Lunenburg, 
Mr. Winchester of Dorchester Canada [Ashburnham], Mr. 
Daniel Emerson of Hollis, and Mr, Joseph Emerson of Pep- 
perell. Joseph Kidder was directed to make provision for the 
Council and other gentlemen, their associates ; for which he 
afterwards received £j77. 17. 6, silver, old tenor. 

The ceremony was performed on the day appointed. The 
sermon was preached by the pastor of the candidate. Rev. 
William Lawrence of Lincoln, from 1 Peter ii. 3: " Feed the 
flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, 
not by constraint, but willingly ; not for filthy lucre," &.c. 
This discourse was afterwards published, " through repeated 
requests from the people in New Ipswich and some other 
friends." 

Thus, after solicitous efforts for more than four years, and 
two ineftectual efforts to obtain others, a man was selected, 
and his acceptance obtained, on whom the destinies of this 
town for good have mainly rested. The alliance was consum- 
mated ; a connection which continued in mutual confidence 
and harmony for nearly fifty years. The purity of his life 
and doctrine, the warmth of his patriotism, his conciliatory 
disposition, and his regard for the interests of education diffus- 
ed a healthful and liberal influence throughout the town ; so 
that an almost entire unanimity of religious and political 
opinion pervaded all classes during his life. 

After the incorporation of the town, the contract made by 
the Proprietors with Mr. Farrar was assumed by the town, 
and his salary was thenceforth raised by a tax on the inhabit- 
ants. At this time there were about fifty families in town, 
numbering perhaps 250 persons. 

In 1768, the last addition was made to his salary, there be- 
ing then one hundred families in town. During the Revolu- 
tion, when money suffered great depreciation, the nominal 
amount of the salary was raised in proportion ; thus in 1778 ; 
it was £300 ; and in 1779 it was £1200. Some of the inhab- 
22 



170 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

itants protested against this, for reasons already specified, 
(p. 90.) In the face of these plausible reasons for evading 
the contract to give a certain sum of silver, the town voted 
the next year (1780) to give him " the nominal sum contract- 
ed to give him by the year in silver money, or in paper money 
at seventy-five for one." A similar adjustment was always 
made, whenever either the fluctuation of the currency or the 
necessities of the pastor required it. Having commuted with 
him to receive a certain amount of money in lieu of wood, as 
the price of wood and other necessaries gradually became 
much enhanced, the town, in 1795, agreed that it was reason- 
able to make an allowance, and voted him the additional sum 
of £27. 65. 80?. The same was voted the next year. In 1803, 
they voted him £100 (|333. 33) and thirty cords of wood, 
which was then held at 8s. 6d. per cord. In 1804 he was to 
have £85, and forty -five cords of wood. 

The same Council which convened to ordain Mr. Farrar, 
Oct. 21, 1660, at the request of the inhabitants, and in concur- 
rence with the pastor elect, assisted in organizing them into a 
church. After serious prayer and deliberative consultation, 
with the advice of the Council it was unanimously agreed, by 
those who were members of other churches or had obtained 
regular dismissions, to unite and embody into a church, by a 
solemn covenant. This covenant, drawn up evidently by Mr. 
Farrar, might well be regarded as a model for such an instru- 
ment. While it fully incorporates all the essential doctrines 
of evangelical faith, and the principles of Christian life, in the 
most scriptural language, it breathes a most humble and pious 
spirit, and is so destitute of denominational peculiarities that 
every part of it might be adopted by every denomination of 
those who believe in the Deity and atoning sacrifice of Christ. 
We can only wonder that any other was ever substituted by 
this church for it. It was in the following terms : 

ORIGINAL CHURCH COVENANT. 

We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, inhabitants of New 
Ipswich, so called, acknowledge the great goodness of God to us, 
both as to outward and spiritual mercies and blessings ; and being, 
as we apprehend, called of God to enter the Christian state of the 
Gospel, for the free enjoyment of God's worship and ordinances, 



\ 



ORIGINAL CHURCH COVENANT. 171 

do, in the first place, acknowledge our great unworthiness to be so 
highly favored of the Lord ; at the same time, admiring and ador- 
ing the free and rich grace of God, that triumphs over so great 
unworthiness, with an humble dependence on the grace of God, 
would now thankfully lay hold on His Covenant, and choose the 
things that please Him. 

We now declare our serious and hearty belief of the Christian 
religion, as contained in the Sacred Scriptures, the rule of Faith 
and Practice, and as it is usually embraced by the faithful in the 
Churches of New England, which is summarily exhibited in the 
substance of it, in their well-known Confession of Faith ; heartily 
resolving to conform our lives to the rules of Christ's holy religion, 
as long as we live in the world. 

We give up ourselves to the Lord Jehovah, who is the Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit, and avouch him this day to be our God and 
Father — our Saviour and our Leader ; and receive him as our por- 
tion forever. 

We give up ourselves to the blessed Jesus, acknowledging his 
true Deity, and do adhere to him as the head of his people, in the 
Covenant of Grace, and rely upon him as our Prophet, Priest and 
King, to bring us to eternal blessedness. 

We acknowledge our everlasting and indispensable obligations to 
glorify God, in all the duties of a sober, righteous and godly life ; 
and more particularly in the duties of a Christian state, and a body 
of people associated for an obedience to Him in all the ordinances 
of the Gospel ; and we therefore depend on His gracious assistance 
for our faithful discharge of the duties thus incumbent on us. And 
we desire, and also promise and engage, with Divine assistance, to 
walk together, as a Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the faith 
and order of the Gospel, so far as we do know, or shall have the 
same made known to us — carefully and conscientiously attending 
the public worship of God and the sacraments of the New Testa- 
ment ; and that we will be observant of the laws of Christ's king- 
dom, which regard the discipline of the Church, as they have in 
general been administered in the churches in New England before 
mentioned ; and that we will attend all God's ordinances and insti- 
tutions in communion with one another, watching over one another 
in the spirit of meekness, love and tenderness ; and that we will 
carefully avoid all sinful stumbling-blocks, strifes and contentions; 
and will endeavor to the utmost to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
the bond of peace. 

And we do now, with ourselves, present and dedicate our offspring 
unto the Lord, resolving, with the help of Divine grace, to do our 
part in the method of a religious education, that they may be the 
Lord's, and that we will carefully keep up family religion. 

And all this we do, flying to the blood of the everlasting Cove- 
nant for the pardon of our manifold sins, praying that the Lord 



172 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

Jesus Christ, who is the head of the Church, and the great Shep- 
herd, would prepare and strengthen us to every good work to do 
His will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, to 
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 

Stephen Farrar, {Pastor elect.) John Dutton, 
Ephraim Adams, Reuben Kidder, 

Joseph Bates, Ebenezer BuUard, 

Thomas Fletcher, Joseph Stevens, 

Andrew Spaulding, Benjamin Hoar, 

Jonah Crosby, Benjamin Adams, 

Amos Taylor, Thomas Adams, 

Zechariah Adams, John Chandler, 

Stephen Adams, Joseph Bullard. 

To these were added, in the course of the succeeding twelve 
years, thirty-eight others.* 

January 1, 1761. Ephraim and Benjamin Adams were 
unanimously appointed by the church as Deacons, and accept- 
ed the office. During the next fifty years, we have record of 
the appointment to the same office of Ephraim Adams, Jr., 
Isaac Appleton, James Chandler and Noah Bartlett ; and we 
incidentally hear of Dea. Jonathan Kimball, Stephen Davis, 
Benjamin Safford and others, but know not if they officiated 
in this church. Indeed the Records of the church are exceed- 
ingly defective, as may readily be supposed, when the fact is 
stated, that all the doings of the church, including the admis- 
sions and dismissions of members during the whole of Mr. 
Farrar' s ministry, are recorded upon a single sheet of paper ; 
and were it not for some private records, especially those of 
Josiah Walton, we should have been left in almost total igno- 
rance of this whole period. For the first half of this epoch, 

* Among these were, 1764, Barnabas Davis, Nathaniel Carleton and wife, 
Rachel Kidder, Cornelius Cook, Joel and Hannah Crosby, Marshall Farnsworth. 

1765. George Start and wife, Ichabod and Sarah How. 

1766. Edmond and Abigail Briant, Nathan Boyntoii, Rebecca Melvin ; the 
wives of Ezra Town and Abijah Smith. 

1767. Seth Cobb and wife, Jonathan and Sarah Davis. 

1768. Joseph and Ruth Pollard ; Rebecca, wife of John Preston. 

1770. Samuel and Bridget Brown, Silas Richardson, John and Susannah 
Cutter ; the wives of Jonas Woolson, Josiah Brown, Stephen Brown and Elijah 
Mansfield. 

1772. Isaac Clark, William Elliot ; wife of Simeon Fletcher. 

According to Mr. Walton's memoranda, there were added in 1786, 88; 1787, 
10; 1789, 5 ; 1790, 1; 1791, 2; 1792, 3; 1794, 2 ; 1800, 5; 1801, 3; 1806, 1; 
1808, 2; 1809, 3. 



GREAT REVIVAL. 173 

there seems to have been very httle to record. It was the 
period including our national revolution, when war and poli- 
tics engrossed the minds of men, to the exclusion of religion. 
Twenty years after his settlement, Mr. Farrar, in tears, la- 
mented that he did not know that he had done any good. In 

1785, when the population was two-thirds as great as it is 
now, the church numbered only ninety-one members. But in 
the autimm of that year a revival of uncommon power and 
interest broke forth, which extended also to the neighboring 
towns. It was forty years after the revivals in the days of 
Edwards, and seven years previous to the great revivals in 
1792, a period in which it has been said there were no revi- 
vals. This was one of a few exceptions. As the fruits of it, 
the church was more than doubled in numbers, ninety-eight 
being added during the two following years ; and others, many 
years afterwards, dated their conversion from this period. 
This was the only occasion of the kind during Mr. F.'s min- 
istry ; and during the twenty years that he officiated after 
this, according to private records, only twenty-eight were 
added. In 1811, however, soon after his death, and before 
his successor was chosen, a still more powerful revival, which 
may justly be regarded as the harvest from the seed he had 
sown, took place. It continued through the two first years of 
Mr. Hall's ministry; and during that time he had the pleasure 
of gathering in one hundred and forty converts, as he himself 
expressed it, in answer to the prayers of Mr. Farrar. 

Rev. Mr. Lee, now pastor of the old church, drew up an 
account of the Revival for the Hillsborough Convention of 
Churches, from sources which have now passed away. It 
was afterwards published in the " Congregational Journal," 
in 1843 ; and from it we make the following extracts : 

" The sudden death of a young lady had produced a deep sensa- 
tion. On the Sabbath preceding the first Wednesday in January, 

1786, Mr. Farrar preached from Isa. xxxii. 2 : ' A man shall be a 
hiding-place from the wind,' &c., with great effect. On the follow- 
ing Wednesday a quarterly church fast (which the church it seems 
had been accustomed to observe, not as a means especially of pre- 
paring the way for a revival, but for the general purpose of promot- 
ing their sanctification,) was held and attended by unusual numbers, 
not only of the church but others. Upon this assembly the Spirit 



174 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

came down with pentecostal power. After the meeting was closed, 
the people, many of them, did not retire for nearly an hour, but 
staid, anxiously inquiring what they must do to be saved. The re- 
port of this meeting went abroad and had a powerful effect. None 
living had witnessed the like, and knew not what a revival was. 
Hence the novelty of the facts only increased the interest. The 
excitement was very great ; and though the winter was very severe 
and the snow deep, it did not cool the burning zeal. Successive 
meetings were often held during the whole day, and by adjourn- 
ment from one place to another. The people would assemble at 
some dwelling-house in the morning, and after continuing their 
meeting a suitable time, adjourn to meet in some other neighbor- 
hood in, say an hour or more, according to the distance. At these 
conference meetings persons would be so disturbed that they would 
arise and say, ' What can I do to be saved ' ? This was especially 
the case at a meeting at the house of Mr. Josiah Walton, where 
the distress of many was exceeding great, and several were con- 
verted during the services. So anxious were persons to attend 
meetings, that the sick would be carried and laid on beds. At a 
meeting in the school-house in the Mill District, two were carried 
and laid on a bed during the service. Mr. Farrar attended these 
meetings, as far as possible, and preached without notes — preached 
in tears, literally, with his auditors sobbing around him. In some 
cases, where private dwellings could not accommodate the many 
who attended, he would repair to the barn, and with his hearers 
around him upon the floor and above him on the scaffold, dispense 
to them the word of life. So great was the demand for ministerial 
labor, that the clergymen from the neighboring churches came to 
aid the overburdened pastor. The members of the church were 
also abundant in labors. Young converts also put on the harness 
as if enlisted in the service of Christ. The subjects of the work 
were of all ages, from children of four, seven and twelve years of 
age, up to extreme old age. 

" This was followed by other Revivals in neighboring places, 
especially in Temple and Ashby. On Election-day, 1786, the 
young people of New Ipswich went to Ashby to hold a religious 
meeting with the young people of that place. The minister of 
Ashby, as also Mr. Farrar, was present ; but the exercises were 
conducted chiefly by the young converts from New Ipswich." 

Mr. Farrar died suddenly, of apoplexy, July 23, 1809. It 
was so sudden and unexpected that all stood aghast. Every 
mark of respect was shown to his memory. His funeral was 
attended by a large concourse from this and the neighboring 
towns. The pulpit was dressed in mourning, and a sermon 
was preached by the Rev. Seth Payson from the words '• And 



CALL OF RICHARD HALL. 175 

devout men carried Stephen to his burial." The town voted 
unanimously to pay the funeral expenses, and for a " suit of 
decent mourning " for the widow; and also to give her the 
mourning used for the pulpit. It was also voted to erect a 
decent monument over his grave ; and Benjamin Champney, 
Esq., Capt. Isaiah Kidder and Nath'l. D. Gould were chosen 
a committee to carry the resolutions into effect. Of his life 
and character more will be given in another place. 

Timothy Farrar, Ephraim Hartwell, Benjamin Williams, 
James Chandler and Ephraim Adams, were appointed a com- 
mittee to provide preachers ; and just a year afterwards, an 
invitation to become the pastor was extended to Rev. Experi- 
ence Porter. He was a man of commanding appearance, and 
a good orator ; the church was unanimous in his favor, and 
a large number of the inhabitants also voted for him. He 
accepted the invitation, with a salary of $500 per annum and 
twenty-five cords of wood. But in consequence of some slan- 
derous reports from other towns, prejudices were excited 
against him, and the votes granting him a salary and supply 
of wood were both reconsidered and rescinded, with but one 
dissenting voice. Under these circumstances, Mr. Porter soon 
left town, and the pulpit was supplied for a time by Rev. Mr. 
Burbank. 

At this time commenced the second great revival, already 
alluded to. In June, 1811, the attention to religion commenc- 
ed, and extended gradually to all classes, in all parts of the 
town. Fifty-four were admitted to the church in 1811, and 
seventy-four in 1812. The effects upon the morals of the 
town have been already described ; and its influence on town 
affairs were no less salutary. The divisions relating to the 
building of the new meeting-house and the settlement of a 
pastor, so far subsided, that both objects were soon accom- 
plished. 

In the autumn of 1811, November 15, the town voted, in 
concurrence with the church, " to give Mr. Richard Hall a 
call to settle with us in the work of the Gospel Ministry,'^ 
provided the town can be honorably discharged from the call 
previously given to the Rev. Experience Porter. A committee 
was appointed to correspond with him on this point, who soon 



176 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

obtained from him a full discharge, and in a most christian 
spirit. It was voted to give Mr. Hall $600 per annum, and 
the interest of the ministerial fund, which at that time amount- 
ed to $1468, and was considered equivalent to another hun- 
dred dollars. Dissatisfaction was soon felt by many of the 
people, on the ground that they had voted for too high a sal- 
ary ; and some proposed a conference with Mr. Hall, to ascer- 
tain if more moderate terms would not be assented to ; but 
the matter passed without action, and proved a fruitful source 
of difficulty afterwards. 

Mr. Hall addressed the following letter to the church and 
congregation, accepting their call : 

Beloved Brethren and Friends : By your Committee I receiv- 
ed an invitation to settle with you in the gospel ministry. I have 
taken the subject under serious consideration, have sought for di- 
vine direction, and have consulted several of my fathers in the 
ministry. The result is a thorough conviction of my duty. The 
harmony which has governed your proceedings, and the conditions 
of the call are such as induces me to declare a readiness to comply 
with your invitation. 

Your liberality, manifested for my support, gives you a right ta 
expect that I shall observe that exhortation of Paul to Timothy, 
" Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Meditate 
upon these things, give thyself wholly to them." And now, com- 
mending you to the grace of God, and requesting an unceasing 
remembrance in your praj'^ers, that I may be faithful and successful 
in the arduous, and infinitely momentous work to which I am called, 
I subscribe myself your affectionate friend and servant in the Lord. 

Eichaud Hall. 

New Ipswich, 25 Jan. 1812. 

March 12th was appointed for his ordination. Seth King, 
Abner Chickering, Supply Wilson, Jr., Nathaniel D. Gould 
and Robert Nicholas were appointed a committee to make all 
necessary arrangements, and " to take any measures they 
might think proper, and that will comport with the dignity of 
the town and the solemnity of the occasion." 

The ordination took place according to appointment. It 
was a great occasion, only one event of the kind, and that 
fifty years previous, had ever taken place in the town ; the 
ceremony was therefore quite a mystery to that generation, 
and many and curious were the speculations as to what would 



ORDINATION OF REV. MR. HALL. 177 

be done on the occasion.* A great concourse of people was 
present from neighboring towns, and not two-thirds of the 
assemblage could obtain entrance to the house. The ordain- 
ing council were as follows : Rev. Leonard Woods of Andover, 
Rev. Luther Sheldon of Easton, Rev. Daniel A. Clark of 
Weymouth, Rev. Seth Payson of Rindge, Rev. Cornelius Wa- 
ters of Ashby (Moderator), Rev. Solomon Miles of Temple, 
and Rev. Ebenezer Hill of Mason, together with delegates 
from their churches. 

The sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Woods of Andover. 
The charge was given by Rev. Dr. Payson ; and a circum- 
stance which rendered it peculiarly impressive was this : 
When Dr. P. entered the ministry, he received his charge 
from Mr. Farrar. On the present occasion, after an appropri- 
ate introduction. Dr. P. proceeded to give to Mr. Hall the 
same charge he had received from Mr. Farrar; and thus, 
standing in the place which Mr. Farrar had so long occupi- 
ed, and using his words, he seemed to personify the venerable 
pastor from his grave, instructing his youthful successor how 
to break the bread of life to his bereaved flock. f 

The ministry of Mr. Hall was faithful and successful. He 
was devoted to the duties of his ofiice, and in addition to the 
revival in which he participated as he entered the ministry, 
and to large annual accessions, his labors were blessed with 
another extensive revival in 1821-2, when upwards of seventy 
were added to the church. During the twelve years of his 
ministry in this place, about two hundred and twenty persons 
were added to the church, averaging nearly twenty annually ; 
and we venture to say, that few instances can be cited where, 
during an equal length of time, and in a community of equal 
numbers, the ministry has been attended with equal success. 

* One very serious disappointment of a somewhat ludicrous character occurred 
on account of this inexperience. It was generally supposed that on such occa- 
sions people would take the liberty to call wherever there might be a chance of 
obtaining a good dinner, without waiting for an invitation, and therefore few in- 
vitations were given. Most ample provisions were made, and open house was 
kept. The consequence was, that nearly all the strangers went home doleful 
and dinnerless, while the unlimited hospitable intentions of the people were 
mostly lost. 

t The same charge was not long since given to a son of Mr. Hall, at his ordi- 
nation, in the pulpit so long occupied by his father. 

23 



178 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

It was during Mr. Hall's pastorate that it was thought ad- 
visable to modify the original Church Covenant, so as to pre- 
sent the articles in a more specific form, and to render them 
more expressive of the theology of the day. The Pastor, 
together with Deacons N. D. Gould and Isaac Adams were 
therefore chosen a committee for the purpose ; and in Novem- 
ber, 1819, presented the following 

CHURCH ARTICLES AND COVENANT. 

You believe the articles of the Christian faith, as they are con- 
tained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments ; particu- 
larly, you believe, that there is one only living and true God, exist- 
ing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
infinite in all His attributes and perfections, the great Creator, con- 
tinual Preserver, sole Proprietor, and supreme Governor of the 
universe. 

You believe that God created man upright and just, after knowl- 
edge, righteousness and true holiness ; that man being in honor did 
not abide, but voluntarily disobeyed the laws of his Creator, and 
fell from that holy and happy state into a state of sin and death. 

You believe that God cannot, consistently with His holy charac- 
ter, forgive sin without an atonement ; that man, with all other 
created beings, is utterly unable to make an atonement for the least 
sin ; and that, so far as respects the claims of the creature, God 
would have been just, and his throne forever guiltless, had he never 
opened a door of mercy. Yet you believe that God, actuated by 
His own self-moving goodness, mercy and grace, hath opened a glo- 
rious way of life and salvation for our guilty and ruined world, 
who hath offered Himself a sacrifice of atonement for sin, and made 
complete satisfaction to divine justice. 

You believe that life and salvation are freely offered to all who 
will repent and believe, that all are free to accept, and under no 
constraint to continue impenitent, which does not consist in their 
unwillingness and opposition. 

You also believe that the righteousness of Christ is that alone 
which justifies in the sight of God, and that the doings of the crea- 
ture, however necessary as evidences of faith, are entirely excluded 
as the ground of justification. 

You believe that all mankind are by nature sinners — dead in 
trespasses and sins ; that they are destitute of holiness and adverse 
to a reconciliation with God, so, that were God to leave them to 
follow their own choice and inclinations, they never would repent 
and believe ; that therefore the power and grace of God are the only 
cause of regeneration and salvation, and that this power and grace 
are exerted according to His eternal purpose. 

You believe that those who are justified by the righteousness of 



MR. HALL DISABLED BY SICKNESS. 179 

Christ, which is perfect and complete, will never fall from grace, 
come into condemnation, or finally fail of salvation. 

You believe that though we are justified by the righteousness of 
Christ and saved by His grace, yet the law, as a rule of life, is of 
full force, that believers are under obligation ever perfectly to obey 
it ; and that the gospel of free grace does not, in the least, encour- 
age nor countenance continuance in sin. 

You believe in the resurrection of the dead and the general judg- 
ment ; that all true Christians will, by divine grace be wholly re- 
covered from sin to holiness, and be completely and eternally happy 
in the kingdom of God ; but, on the contrary, that the wicked, im- 
penitent and ungodly will go away into everlasting punishment. 

In 1822, Mr. Hall's health began to fail him, and bleeding 
at the lungs supervened. The subsequent winter he spent in 
New Orleans, but without any material benefit. For a year 
and a half he had been unable to preach, and had supplied 
the pulpit with other preachers. Considerable dissatisfaction 
began to be felt, and it was only by a very small majority 
that his salary for 1824 was voted. In December, he address- 
ed a letter to the Church and town, stating that he had adopt- 
ed the means which seemed most likely to restore his health 
without apparent benefit, or any immediate prospect of resum- 
ing his duties, and that mider those circumstances it seemed 
desirable that his connection with them should be dissolved, 
" if it could be effected on fair and righteous conditions." His 
own view of the case was, that he had been settled with a 
salary for life ; while the town thought that, as in the case of 
his predecessor, it was " to continue so long as he does the 
work of a Gospel minister in this place, and no longer." He 
proposed a reference of persons, to be mutually acceptable, for 
a fair and final settlement of the civil contract between him 
and the town, submitting to them the question in the follow- 
ing form: "What are fair and equitable conditions of Mr. 
Hall's dismission from the church and people of his charge? " 
The town appointed a committee to bring the subject to deci- 
sion by reference, and to employ counsel if necessary. The 
committee and Mr. Hall did not agree on a reference ; and 
after considerable correspondence the subject was abandoned. 
The committee reported their proceedings at the next March 
meeting (1824), and were discharged ; but a new committee 



180 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

was chosen " to give notice to Mr. Hall that the town consider 
him under obligations to fulfil the duties of a Christian Minis- 
ter during the existence of the contract, and that the town 
do not consider themselves under obligations to pay him his 
salary unless he fulfils all the duties of a Christian minister." 
Though there might have been no legal obligations, it was 
hardly to be expected that one who had served long and faith- 
fully, should be discharged while hopelessly struggling with 
disease, and with a large and helpless family dependent upon 
him, without any encouragement of assistance, and without an 
expression of sympathy. There might have been manifest- 
ed, on his part, an uncompromising or exacting spirit, which 
provoked the resolution. Could it have been foreseen how 
short was the remnant of his days, it is not likely that a 
course so at variance with what has since been taken, under 
similar circumstances, would have been adopted. 

Mr. Hall soon left the town, and took refuge at his father's 
house in New Haven, Vt., telling his friends there that he had 
come to lay his bones with them. He died July 13, 1824, 
aged forty-six years. When the intelligence of his death 
reached town, the meeting-house was shrouded in mourning, 
and the mourning drapery was subsequently voted to his 
widow. 

The early ecclesiastical system in this town was the same 
as in all other New England towns. The town built the 
meeting-house, and owned it ; the church chose the pastor, 
and the town raised his salary ; and every man was taxed, 
and compelled to pay for his support, however much he might 
differ in sentiment. It was thus a sort of established church, 
sustained by law. There are advantages in it ; at least, it is 
pleasant to see a whole community walking the same road 
and assembling under the same roof, for religious worship ; 
but it was this very system our forefathers crossed the ocean 
to escape. In the early part of this century, nearly all the 
citizens were of one mind in religious matters. None had ever 
objected to the minister's tax, save the Shakers. There were 
a very few who professed Anabaptist sentiments, and were 
connected with the Baptist church in Mason village. Year 



FIRST CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY FORMED. 181 

after year did they petition to be released from paying taxes 
towards the town's ministry, and as often did the town refuse 
to release them ; but at last, by a law of the State, the stand- 
ing order was broken up, and no man was obliged to pay for 
preaching other than that which he chose to hear. All de- 
nominations being thus put upon an equal footing, the Baptists 
made application for their proportion of the ministerial fund : 
a fund derived from the sale of one right of land reserved by 
the Charter for the support of the ministry. After several 
years refusal, this too was conceded in 1820 ; and it is now 
equally divided between all denominations which support 
preaching three months in a year. The fund in 1835 was 
$1315.68, and the avails of the fund are about $80 a year. 

Mr. Hall's death dissolved all connection between the town, 
as such, and its future pastors ; and from henceforth, we look 
in vain upon the Town Records for any of the ecclesiastical 
concerns in town. The last salary raised by taxation was in 
1823 ; after this time, each one was to pay or not, and to such 
organized society, as he pleased. 

The Congregational Society, consisting of the members of 
the old church, and such others as chose to associate with 
them, was organized in 1824. At a meeting of the church, 
August 26, 1824, it was voted " expedient to establish the re- 
settlement of the Gospel ministry among us as soon as may be 
consistently, and to request the Society to unite with us in 
procuring a candidate." In October the church voted to give 
Rev. Isaac R. Barbour a call to settle as pastor ; but the Soci- 
ety did not concur. The church repeated the call in Decem- 
ber, 1825, and the Society concurred ; but on this occasion the 
candidate did not see fit to accept the invitation. A joint 
committee of the church and society, appointed with no great 
unanimity, requested him to withdraw his negative answer, 
and renewed the request that he would settle over them. To 
their solicitations he returned an affirmative answer, dated 
February 12, 1826, and was installed on the 8th of March. 
But on the 22d of August, the same year, he requested a dis- 
mission, ostensibly on account of the ill-health of his wife, but 
doubtless mainly because of the division of feeling which had 
attended his settlement, and which still continued. The 



182 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

church, " after considering all the circumstances of the case," 
voted that his request be granted, and he was dismissed in 
due form. The society purchased the house and land owned 
by him, for a parsonage. This was the Hodgkins estate, on 
the road to Mill Village. A gratuity of ^150 was also made 
to him. 

No time was lost in obtaining a successor. On the 20th of 
December, 1826, Mr. Charles Walker was invited to become 
the Pastor, with an offer of $600 salary, to which the church, 
as such, agreed to add another hundred. To this invitation 
he returned the following answer : 

To the Congregational Church and Society in New Ipswich : 

My dear Friends, — Your invitation to settle with you in the 
Gospel ministry has now been before me some weeks. I have felt, 
in relation to answering your call, as you did in giving it, that it 
was a subject of too much importance to be acted upon hastily. 
After receiving it, I resolved not to listen to any proposition from 
any other quarter, until I had in some way answered yours. The 
simple inquiry was, then, Shall I accept the call from New Ipswich, 
or shall I not ? To aid me in this inquiry I have sought the advice 
of my friends and of those who are wise in counsel. I have en- 
deavored to weigh impartially the considerations upon both sides of 
the question, in favor of an affirmative or negative answer. 

With this inquiry before me, I have looked up, I trust, sincerely, 
for that wisdom which is profitable to direct. So far as I know my 
own heart, I have been solicitous to ascertain the leadings of Provi- 
dence, and have endeavored to cherish a disposition to follow them. 
The result of my deliberation upon this subject, so important to you 
and to me, has given peace to my own mind ; and the path of duty, 
on the whole, appears plain. 

I accept your invitation. May your own hopes and mine be fully 
realized in the interesting relation which is anticipated, and may it 
embrace our eternal interests. 

Yours, affectionately, Charles Walker. 

Mr. Walker was ordained February 28, 1827, and contin- 
ued the pastor until 1835, when he asked a dismission, which 
was granted in August, to the sincere regret of a large propor- 
tion of the inhabitants. His ministry was faithful and suc- 
cessful. During his pastorship the church, already one of the 
largest and most efficient in New Hampshire, was nearly 
doubled in numbers. At his settlement there were 173 mem- 



SETTLEMENT OF REV. SAMUEL LEE. 183 

bers of the church ; at his dismission there were 335. A me- 
morable revival occurred in 1831, and the scenes attending it 
are still deeply imprinted on the minds of the present genera- 
tion. At one time, about sixty stood forth together, to assume 
the obligations of the Covenant. But his ministry was also 
checkered with difficulties. An unusual number of individ- 
uals came under discipline, and some of them several times. 
Many of the cases were of a very perplexing character, and 
protracted through several years ; in the course of which, par- 
ties were naturally formed ; criminations and recriminations 
rapidly succeeded each other ; and indeed, on one occasion 
the pastor himself was arraigned by one of the church, which 
resulted in an ecclesiastical council and the exculpation of the 
pastor. At least two other councils were called during his 
pastorate. These controversies are still fresh in the remem- 
brance of the inhabitants ; but we forbear alluding to them 
except in this general way ; nor would it be becoming in us, 
even were all the facts known to us, to express an opinion as 
to where the fault lay. Doubtless, in these, as in most other 
cases of the kind, there was a zeal manifested, and an impor- 
tance given to matters apparently trifling, which, to bystand- 
ers, would seem quite unaccountable. Wide dijfferences of 
opinion, and perseverance in maintaining them, are not incon- 
sistent, however, with the honesty and sincerity of opponents. 
Rev. Samuel Lee * was installed as the fifth pastor, May 5, 
1836, and is the present incumbent. Many additions to the 
church have been the fruits of his ministry. Another of those 
peculiar revival seasons, by which this town has been so re- 
markably distinguished, occurred soon after his settlement, 
and a large number made a profession of religion in 1837-8 ; 
and a still more remarkable one took place in 1841-2, during 
which time upwards of one hiuidred were added to the church. 
His ministry has been in many respects highly successful ; 
but though the difficulties themselves, which had so agitated 
the pastorate of his predecessor, were settled, party spirit 
naturally engendered by them was not eradicated. To those 

* Samuel Lee, born in Berlin, Conn., March 18, 1803 ; graduated at Yale 
College 1827 ; studied Theology at New Haven ; ordained at Sherburne, Mass., 
Nov. 4, 1830; resigned April 27, 1836; installed at New Ipswich May 5, 1836. 



184 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

Other causes of disagreement have been added, which have at 
last resulted in the separation of the old church of 1762 into 
two bodies. These events are so recent as neither to require 
nor to allow of amplification or comment. 

In taking a retrospect of the church, it will appear that 
during the ninety years since its organization, it has been 
destitute of a settled minister only five years and four months; 
and so far as we have been able to learn, it has not been des- 
titute of preaching for a single day. Mr. Farrar rarely, if 
ever, availed himself of his privilege of an annual vacation ; 
and since the time of his death it has not been difficult to ob- 
tain supplies whenever necessary. It is gratifying also to be 
able to record, that for more than sixty years, that is, during 
the pastorates of Mr. Farrar and Mr. Hall, no quarrels of any 
kind were known in the church. Pastor and people seemed 
to have mutual confidence in each other, and to cooperate in 
every good word and work. To succeed in thus maintaining 
harmony requires a knowledge of human nature and a tact 
not often possessed. It would be pleasant to stop here ; and 
we could almost wish, that for the last half of the century, the 
Church Records had been as meagre as they were for the first 
half It is truly painful, in looking over the Records, which 
should be radiant with expressions of love and peace, and 
swelling with the enumeration of new converts, to find, for a 
period of twenty years, the many things of this sort which 
might have been recorded, entirely omitted, and in their place 
a catalogue of nothing but cases of discipline and contention. 
The condition of the Records too, is worthy of reprobation. 
For the last twelve or fifteen years they have been carefully 
and fully kept, and nothing more systematic could be desired. 
But previous to that, the utmost confusion prevails. Nothing 
like a complete list of members is to be found. This should 
be prepared as far as is now possible, and all the Records, pre- 
vious to the volume now in use, should be copied in order. 
The importance of such documents is constantly increasing, and 
when well kept they form the most reliable data for history. 

The church has been a very efficient one. It has furnish- 
ed a large number of both ministers and ministers' wives. In 



SABBATH SCHOOL. 185 

this regard the influence of the Academy has been very appa- 
rent. Indeed the reaction of the Church on the Academy, and 
the Academy on the prosperity of the Church, has been very 
decidedly marked. A goodly number have entered the mis- 
sionary field in this and foreign lands. It was among the first 
to take an active interest in the cause of Missions, of educating 
young men for the ministry, in the distribution of tracts, and 
the other benevolent operations of the present century. A 
" Cent Society," the members of which contribute one cent a 
week to benevolent objects, was formed about forty years ago, 
and is still in active existence. A scholarship of seventy-five 
dollars was sustained for several years ; and liberal contribu- 
tions in clothing and other necessaries have often been made 
to indigent students. The aggregate of contributions for be- 
nevolent objects in latter years has ranged from ten to four- 
teen hundred dollars. 

The Sabbath School was established in the spring of 1818, 
the next year after that institution was introduced in Boston. 
It was a new project, and did not, for a time, receive the 
marked favor of either parents or children. The exercises 
consisted exclusively in committing to memory chapters in the 
Bible, for which tickets were given. These were of two de- 
nominations ; one having a verse or text printed in black ink; 
the other was printed in red ink, and was ten times the value 
of the first. At the end of the season these tickets were 
commuted for books of equal value. There were then no 
Sabbath School Libraries, no Question Books, no Bible Illus- 
trations, no Juvenile Music; but numerous chapters were 
learned, which in after life were never forgotten. 

BAPTIST CHURCH. 

In the latter part of the last century a few persons had been 
baptized by immersion, and had united with a small Baptist 
church, formed, about 1790, of persons residing in Temple, 
Jafirey, Rindge, Sharon and New Ipswich, and called " the 
church in Temple;" others from time to time adopted the 
same sentiments and practice. They occasionally held meet- 
ings at private houses as early as 1801 ; at which time it was 
24 



186 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

voted to have Elder Elliot preach on the first Sunday of each 
month, at the houses of John Brown, Josiah Brown, Benjamin 
Prescott (of Jaffrey) and Ebenezer Stratton. For the next 
ten years preaching was sustained more or less each year, for 
the most part alternately at the school-houses near Aaron 
Brown and Benjamin Prescott, who were the two principal 
supporters. For a year or two they worshipped in the old 
meeting-house, until the opening of their new house in Janu- 
ary, 1816. Elder Elliot usually preached during this time, 
and was paid at the rate of three dollars a Sabbath. Josiah 
Brown was chosen the first deacon, in 1801. 

In 1814, it was agreed to divide the church ; the members 
belonging to Jaffrey and Rindge were to form the church in 
Jaffrey, and those belonging to Temple and New Ipswich 
were to form the church in New Ipswich; the members be- 
longing to Sharon were to join either of the branches as they 
might choose. The original members of the New Ipswich 
branch were thirty-three * in number, to whom several others 
were soon after added ; and many of those who had contend- 
ed against the location chosen for the new meeting-house at- 
tached themselves to this new Society. Elder John Parkhurst 
was at this time their preacher, and was invited to become 
the pastor of the New Ipswich church. He accepted the call, 
and was installed March 10, 1814. Elder Andrews, of Athol, 
preached the sermon on the occasion. Mr. Parkhurst was to 
preach three Sabbaths in a month, with a salary of $200 ; the 
fourth Sabbath he preached at Sharon or Jaffrey. He contin- 
ued his labors until 1821, when, as the Record expresses it, 
" he felt it his duty to labor in another part of the vineyard of 
Christ. Parted peaceably." Mr. Parkhurst was a native of 
Chelmsford, and a graduate of Harvard College in 1810. He 
was a good scholar, and though not particularly attractive as 
a preacher, he was universally respected for his amiable de- 

* John Parkhurst, Josiah Brown, Aaron Brown, John Brown, Henry Whit- 
man, Ebenezer Fletcher, William Laws, Joseph Eaton, Jr., Stearns Adams, 
Mary Emery, Dolly Fuller, Sally Fuller, Adubah Bancroft, Martha Brown, 
Abigail Laws, Anna Moor, Hannah Brown, Sally Burrows, Lydia Burrows, Ruth 
Burrows, Celia Burrows, Catherine Eaton, Betsy Eaton, Betsy Wheeler, Betsy 
Stearns, Abigail Whitman, Sally Haynes, Cynthia Adams, Mary Fletcher, Mary 
Barr, Relief Stone, Betsy Spear, Rebecca Gibson. 



BAPTIST SOCIETY. 187 

portment and his consistent Christian character. The preach- 
ers who have subsequently labored here are as follows : 



Ferris Moore, 


from 


1821 to 1824. 


Joseph Elliot, 




1824 " 1827, 


Benjamin R. Skinner, 




1827 '' 1828. 


Calvin Greenleaf, 




1828 " 1830. 


Asaph Merriam, 




1830 " 1836. 


Johnson Howard, 




1836 " 1839. 


S. M. Willmarth, 




1840 " 1842. 


Jacob Weston, 




1842 " 1842. 


Harrison W. Strong, 




1843 " 


A. H. House, 




1850. 



Rev. Asaph Merriam also again officiated for a time, previous 
to the settlement of the last pastor. 

Of the above ministers. Rev. B. R. Skinner afterwards was 
designated as a missionary to Liberia, where he died. Mr. 
Weston embraced the Second Advent doctrines, and became 
the principal advocate of them in town, denouncing the church 
as a " cage of unclean birds," and causing much difficulty. 
Licenses to preach have been granted by the church to the 
following members : John Brown, Bela Wilcox, Isaac Butter- 
field, Daniel F. Twist. 

The church meetings for business were usually held, for 
many years, at the house of Ebenezer Fletcher, in the Mill 
Village ; and candidates liave been usually baptized in the 
river at that place. 

This society has always struggled under serious disadvan- 
tages. Its members were originally few, and the prejudices 
of the inhabitants generally, were very strong against them. 
In addition to this, the society became a receptacle for malcon- 
tents from the other congregation, which of course rendered it 
still more odious. For many years there was no exchange of 
ministerial and scarcely of social courtesies, between the cler- 
gymen of the two denominations. As early as 1810 we find 
some of the leading Baptists contending for the principle, now 
so universally allowed, that no one should be compelled to 
pay for a ministry which, from conscientious scruples, he did 
not attend ; and Josiah Brown, Abner Brown, Peter Sander- 
son, John Cary and Henry Godding asked to be excused from 



188 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

the minister's tax, on this ground. The town did not grant 
their request. With great pertinacity they continued from 
year to year to urge their claim in increasing numbers. In 
1815 we find the number of remonstrants had increased to 
eighteen, and some of them refused to pay for the support of 
Mr. Hah. The town as stoutly contended against them ; and 
as it was supposed that some claimed to be Baptists solely for 
the purpose of evading taxation, two of them were arrested to 
compel payment. To avoid imprisonment they paid the tax, 
and then brought suits against the town to recover the money. 
A committee was appointed by the town to confer with them, 
and " report to the selectmen such evidence as they can obtain 
of certain persons calling themselves Baptists, who claim ex- 
emption from paying a ministerial tax to Mr. Hall, whether 
they pay the taxes that have been assessed or not;" and on 
their report, the town authorized the settlement of the difficulty 
by refunding the money demanded (five dollars) with costs. 

Having gained this point, they next entered a claim to their 
proportion of the ministerial fund, and continued their appli- 
cations regularly for several years. Sometimes the town neg- 
atived the request, and sometimes refused to act upon it; 
but at last, in 1820, a proportional division was agreed to, 
by a bare majority, and has been continued to the present 
time. In 1823 some assistance was asked of the town, as 
such, and ^30 was voted from the town treasury. At various 
times since then, assistance has been derived from persons not 
connected with the society, and some small legacies have been 
left to it by some of its members. 

Of late years there has been a degree of fellowship between 
the two denominations, which is quite gratifying when con- 
trasted with the exclusiveness, if not hostility, which once 
prevailed. In revivals, and on all other occasions of religious 
interest, they have been accustomed to cooperate. 

The society is still feeble in strength, compared with its 
numbers. There are now about fifty members. The total 
number which has been connected with the church is about 
two hundred ; the largest number, at any one time, about 
eighty. 



DELUSIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 189 

UNITARIAN SOCIETY. 

A number of the inhabitants united to form a Unitarian 
Society, A meeting-house was built near the High Bridge in 
1833, as aheady stated. Rev. Mr. Harding, an Enghshman, 
Rev. Reuben Bates, since settled in Ashby^ and Rev. Warren 
Burton, have officiated as ministers. Some of its principal 
supporters having either died or removed, the interest was 
abandoned after a few years, and is now extinct. 

A Universalist minister. Rev. Asa P. Cleverly, was also 
sustained for a few months. 

METHODIST SOCIETY. 

A Methodist society was established about the year 1840. 
It is attended chiefly by persons employed at the Factories ; 
and on that account the meeting-house, which had been built 
in the middle of the town, was abandoned, and a new one re- 
cently erected at its present position, near Brown's Factory. 
The society is in a flourishing condition, so much so that it 
became necessary, within two years after the erection of their 
house of worship, to enlarge its dimensions. The church 
numbers about sixty members. 

Its first pastor was Rev. Mr. Moulton ; and among his suc- 
cessors were G. W. T. Rogers, Joseph W. Guernsey, Joseph 
Hayes, J. Hall, Mr. Boyce, and Orlando H. J. Jasper, its 
present pastor. y^ 

This town cannot boast of having escaped religious fanati- 
cism. But few are aware that one of the strangest delusions, 
attended with almost incredible extravagances, once prevailed 
here. About the year 1784, a number of citizens, mostly at 
the south part of the town, gave credence to the divine mis- 
sion of Anna Lee, from whom originated the sect of Shaking 
Quakers. In 1785, John Melvin, David Melvin, Jonathan 
Kinney, Amos Whittemore, and Nathaniel Williams, on this 
account, petitioned to have their minister's tax abated. Their 
request was at first granted, but afterwards denied. The 
leading man among them was Amos Whittemore, who lived 
on the south road, at the foot of the Whittemore Hill, at the 



190 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

place now owned by Mr. Ramsdell. At his house their 
meetings were held. They could assemble forty or fifty from 
this and the neighboring towns. Their exercises consisted of 
furious and long-continued whirling and dances, exceeding in 
this respect anything in the annals of savage war-dances ; 
they were performed with half naked bodies, and attended 
with singing, shouting and shrieking which could be heard 
for miles ; and, in short, they resembled drunken bacchanals 
or raving wild beasts rather than rational beings. A stick, 
which had been used for thumping time at these dances, was 
for thirty years preserved on the beams of the house of Capt. 
Bailey, occupied at that time by the Kinneys. Some, if not 
all of them, believed in witchcraft and in their ability to per- 
form miracles. Many amusing stories are told, illustrative of 
the reluctance of the mind to yield to the dictates of reason 
under such delusions. On one occasion a man had a paral- 
yzed arm, and one of the miracle-workers told him that before 
the sun rose again, his arm should be well. On the following 
morning, when the day was considerably advanced, his wife, 
finding him still in bed, inquired why he did not rise. He 
replied that it was not time — that tlie sun was not yet risen. 
On being assured that he was mistaken, and that it was some 
hours high, he declared it to be impossible, because his arm 
was not yet well. On another occasion, one of them visited a 
relative, and told him that he had been commissioned by the 
Lord to convert him and Mr. Gibbs and Col. Heald, that 
very day, and he had then come for that very purpose. To 
which the relative replied : The Lord knows that Mr. Gibbs 
has been gone to Boston for a week, and will not be back for 
a week to come ; and how could he send you here, to convert 
him today. The Shaker replied, if that is the case, I will go 
home again. Notwithstanding this palpable refutation of his 
pretensions, he clung none the less to his delusion. 

After a year or two, most of the Shakers removed to Har- 
vard, and joined the Shaker community in that place. Mr. 
Whittemore, after remaining a few years, and sacrificing all 
his property, came back, and was supported by his son. His 
daughter Sarah, though quite young, was so confidently re- 
garded by him as possessed of supernatural powers, exerted 



CHURCH MUSIC. 191 

upon his cattle and other subjects, that when she died she was 
placed in a box of rough boards, and denied the common rites 
of burial. 

There were several other dames who enjoyed the unenvia- 
able reputation of being witches. One of them especially, 
with her high cap, bible and yardstick, which she usually 
carried with her, and which were regarded as her talismen, 
was looked upon with superstitious awe, not only by the 
youth of the neighborhood, but by some of the most pious and 
venerable men and women too. It was gravely asserted by a 
most excellent deacon, that on attacking a cat in his barn, 
with a pitchfork, it was suddenly transformed into a human 
hand ; and another worthy man asserted that a cat came into 
the sawmill and placed her paw on the saw while in motion, 
and instantly stopped it. But, with the exception of such im- 
accountable freaks of cats and oxen, and some extra kinks in 
pigs' tails, we cannot learn that there was any foundation for 
the wonderful powers ascribed to the supposed witches. 

The Miller delusion found not a few adherents, and receiv- 
ed no inconsiderable countenance here. In 1842 an immense 
tent was erected on the south road, near the Bedstead Factory, 
where preaching was kept up for several weeks. At one time 
it is estimated that as many as five thousand persons were 
present. There are a few who still adhere to the idea that 
the second Advent is near at hand ; but with these few ex- 
ceptions, all have returned to their ancient faith. 

CHURCH MUSIC. 

The singing was at first conducted according to the usual 
custom in churches in the middle of the last century ; that is, 
the minister first read the hymn, and then began repeating it, 
line by line, allowing the singers time to sing each line after 
him. Some one of the congregation "raised the tune," and 
then all who could sing, or thought they could, joined in. 
This practice of lining the hymn was continued until 1784 
when a committee was appointed to consider whether any 
beneficial modification could be made. They made a report 
which was, to adopt a proposition of the church, " that the lines 



192 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 

be read according as the nature of the tune best requires, 
whether it be two hnes together, or four." This report was 
accepted by the town, " provided the psahn or hymn be read 
by single hnes, excepting when they sing Particular Metre." 
In 1787 a still farther innovation was adopted, namely, " that 
the singers might sing the last time each Sabbath without 
reading, also all hymns and psalms of particular metres." 

The singing was for a long time strictly congregational, no 
special place being assigned for the singers. But soon after 
the building of the third meeting house, it was proposed to 
collect them into a choir, and allow them to sit in the front 
gallery, which had been designed and occupied as free seats, 
one half for males and the other for females. The town con- 
sented ; but the old occupants rebelled, and some of them 
maintained their accustomed seats in spite of the intrusion ; 
and so great did the resistance prove, that the gallery was 
given up, and in 1780 the two hindermost of the long seats 
below were assigned to the singers. Two years afterwards 
the singers were allowed, at their own expense, to convert 
these seals into pens, which they did by placing doors at the 
ends. They also placed a board upon the top of the front seat, 
so as to make a sort of table between the two ranks, on which 
to place their books ; and when they rose to sing, the front 
rank turned about and faced those behind them ; and then 
poured forth volumes of sound at each other, with vigorous 
quaver and right good will. About the year 1804, the num- 
ber of singers having very much increased in consequence 
of a successful singing school, the " singing pens" became too 
strait, and the singers were allowed to occupy the gallery. 
Much opposition was again manifested, but this time the sing- 
ers maintained their ground. 

Among the early settlers who had musical talents, were old 
Captain Tucker, who raised the tune until his death, Timothy 
Farrar, John Warner, Nathaniel Gould, Nathaniel Swain, 
Thomas Brown and Jeremiah Prichard. In 1786 Lieut, 
Prichard was appointed to set the psalm instead of Thomas 
Brown ; and in 1787 Mr. Gould was to set the psalm and 
select a number to assist him ; he nominated John Warner, 
Jeremiah Prichard, Jotham Hoar, Benjamin Champney and 



I 



CHURCH MUSIC. 193 

John Pratt. Who the ladies were that assisted in these exer- 
pises, we are not informed. Mr. Gould was chorister for 
many years ; and after him Major Hoar and Peter Fletcher, 
Jr. ; subsequently Benjamin Champney held the office for a 
long time. Dea. N. D. Gould succeeded him about the year 
1808, and directed the music until he removed from the town 
in 1817. Dea. John Clark and his sons have had charge of 
the choir, for the most part, from that time to this. 

The tunes used for the first forty years were of the substan- 
tial sort, such as York, Mear, St. Martins, St. Anns, &c., and 
were limited in number to eight or ten, which by long and 
repeated use had become almost as sacred as the Bible itself. 
This kind of music prevailed until about 1780, when a new 
style was introduced, much more rapid in movement and in- 
tricate in structure. It was the introduction of this music, 
called fugueing, in which the several parts were singing 
different words at the same time, and allowing no time for 
pauses, that prompted to, and even compelled the abandon- 
ment of reading the hymns line by line. 

The character of the musical performances in this town 
has been of a high order, and unusual attention has been 
given to the cultivation of music. On this account it deserves 
to be more fully spoken of; and we shall therefore recur to it 
again under the head of Singing Schools and Music. 



25 



CHAPTER XII, 



EDUCATIONAL HISTORY, 



EARLIEST COMMON SCHOOLS; SCHOOL TAX; GRAMMAR SCHOOL; SCHOOL 
HOUSES ; INSTRUCTORS ; ACADEMY ; COMPACT ; EDIFICE; INCORPO- 
RATION; funds; new EDIFICE ; DONATION OF GLOBES AND BOOKS 
BY ISAAC AND SAMUEL APPLETON ; OF MRS. EVERETT ; PRECEP- 
TORS ; DONATION OF MONEY BY SAMUEL APPLETON ; DEMOSTHENI- 
AN SOCIETY ; GRADUATES OF COLLEGES ; LITERARY PRODUCTIONS. 

The cause of learning has been well sustained, and has 
done much for the reputation of the town ; not so much, how- 
ever, in its earlier history, as could have been desired. In the 
Grant of the township it was provided that one right should 
be set aside for the support of schools ; and thus, with enlight- 
ened foresight, the Proprietors did all that was incumbent on 
them, to furnish the means of education to the settlers. But 
we have no intimation that any school was kept until after the 
incorporation of the town, fourteen years after the actual set- 
tlement. It is true that there could have been very few who 
were not either too young or too old to attend schools at that 
early period, and those few must have been widely scattered. 
Doubtless they received private instruction at home from their 
parents, who, we have abundant evidence, were intelligent 
and well-educated people. In 1762, the year of all others 
most memorable in the history of the town, it was " voted 
that a school be kept in town three months this year, and no 
more, as near the meeting-house as a house can be provided." 
Two years afterwards, means were provided to have schooling 
four months, in four quarters of the town ; and if any persons 
failed to provide a place for a school, that quarter was to be 
destitute, and the other quarters that did provide were to en- 
joy the benefits. William Shattuck is supposed to have been 
the teacher. In 1768, the town was divided into four dis- 



SCHOOL TAX. 



195 



tricts, each of which was to have its committee man, and £20 * 
was appropriated for schools, each district to receive in pro- 
portion to the amount paid by the inhabitants of the district. 
In 1771, a sum of money was raised to build school-houses, 
and, so far as can be learned, none were built previous to this; 
but the schools were kept in private houses. Tradition says, 
that the first school in town was kept at Reuben Kidder's 
house. The first school-house in the middle of the town was 
on the hill, northwest of the old meeting-house, and was 
afterwards used as a carpenter's shop. 

The following table will show the amount of the School 
Tax for a series of years, and the proportion in which it was 
distributed to the districts according to taxation. It will be 
seen that the preponderance of the population was at first 
towards the northeast, and that it gradually became equalized 
towards the southwest. 



Years. 
1772, 


N. East. 


East. 


Middle. 


S. East. 


S. West. 


West. 
6.19.2 


Total. 


6.17.14 


5. 


10.19 


4.19. 6 


5. 5 


£40 


1773, 


7.4 


4.16 


10. 5. 4 


5. 6. 8 


5.14. 8 


6.13.4 


40 


1774, 


8.10. 4 


5.15.9 


11.17. 4 


7. 0.11 


7. 6.11 


9. 8.4 


50 


1775, 


5. 1. 6 


3. 9.5 


6.14. 6 


4. 6. 9 


4.13. 5 


5.14.4 


30 


1776, 


6.11. 4 


4. 6.4 


8.15.10 


5.13.10 


6.16. 3 


8. 6.2 


40 


1777, 


9.19. 1 


6.19.4 


15. 3.10 


8.14. 3 


9.11 


9.12.2 


56 



At this period the currency became depreciated, and the 
nominal sum appropriated for schools in 1780 was £5000, be- 
ing in reality about £60 silver. 

It seems that by law the towns containing a certain num- 
ber of inhabitants, were obliged to maintain a grammar school 
where Latin might be taught, on penalty of £20 for failure. 
For a number of years the town tried to avoid this expense, 
and used to vote annually to indemnify the Selectmen, if they 
should be fined for not providing one. In 1771, it was voted 
to -have a Grammar school nine months in the year; while at 
the same time they voted to hold the Selectmen harmless, if 
they did not have one. But at last, in 1772, several persons 
dissented from this proceeding; and in the following year, a 
protest still stronger against this evasion was recorded on the 
town books, "as repugnant to the law of the Land in such 



196 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

case made and provided," and signed, Ebenezer Champney, 
Abijah Smith, Jonas Wheeler, Ezra Mansfield, John Brooks, 
Wilham Spear, Isaac Clark, Edmond Briant, Reuben Kidder, 
Eleazer Cummings, Joseph Bates, Simeon Gould, John But- 
ton, Moses Tucker, Thomas Kidder, Francis Fletcher, Isaac 
How. As we find among these the names of but two or three 
who were likely to have been particularly interested in the 
cause of education, we are led to suspect that the protest was 
a partizan, rather than a conscientious matter. 

The effect of the remonstrance was to provide a sort of pe- 
ripatetic Grammar School. There was to be a Master, who 
should go from school to school, beginning with the middle 
school, which paid the most, and ending with the eastern dis- 
trict, which paid the least ; here he was to keep one month, 
and in the other districts " as much longer as their pay is 
more." In 1787, £20 were appropriated to have a Grammar 
master in the middle district, to whom grammar scholars from 
the other districts might go. At this time the number of dis- 
tricts was seven — the school tax was £60 silver ; and the 
length of the school varied in the districts from four to eight 
weeks, which was the whole amount of annual schooling en- 
joyed. In 1801, the amount raised for schools was $500 ; in 
1805, $600 ; and there were nine districts. And this was the 
amount annually appropriated until 1825, when it was in- 
creased to $700. In 1833, it was $800 ; in 1838, $850. The 
sum now appropriated is about $1000, and the number of dis- 
tricts is fourteen. 

The lands originally set aside for the support of schools 
were sometimes improved, and sometimes rented. They were 
finally sold and the proceeds funded. In 1796 the fund was 
£175; in 1805, it was $583.34, when another sale was made, 
and in 1806 it was $947.34 ; in 1835, it was $1351.62. 

xC?j-x^^,^=^ The Central school-house, fifty 

''^^' ~" years ago, stood on a rock in the 

orchard opposite the northeast corner 
of the old burying-ground. After 
the road to the turnpike was built, it 
was removed down the hill, and placed at the corner of Mr. 
Hills' garden. 




THE ACADEMY. 197 

Additional school-houses were from time to time built. In 
1789, £300 was voted for building and repairing school-houses; 
in 1800, ^630 was voted to build school-houses. 

The schools in town have for the last seventy years been of 
a high order, especially that in the middle district. Among 
the earliest teachers was Timothy Farrar ; and after him John 
Hubbard, who was subsequently the first preceptor of the 
Academy. After the establishment of the latter Institution, 
this district always enjoyed the advantage of a selection from 
all the students, as a teacher ; and usually, the preceptor him- 
self was employed for the winter term. The other districts 
enjoyed similar advantages of selection ; so that instruction 
has ahuost invariably been given, both summer and winter, 
by competent teachers. 

NEW IPSWICH ACADEMY. 

Although the town had made provision for instruction in 
the languages under such competent men as Timothy Farrar, 
Mr. Hedge, and John Hubbard, yet it was only for a few 
weeks in a year ; and after the close of the Revolutionary war 
it was not to be expected, that such men as the Farrars, 
Champneys, Prestons, Barretts, Appletons and Kidders, who 
then had sons coming forward, would be satisfied with the 
advantages then enjoyed. Accordingly, in 1787, an associa- 
tion of gentlemen, in this and the neighboring towns, thirty- 
two in number, entered into the following compact : 

Know all men by these presents : That we whose names are 
underwritten, and seals hereto affixed, do covenant jointly and sev- 
erally for ourselves, our heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, 
and each to the other, that we will support and maintain a school 
for and during the term of five years from the date of these pres- 
ents, and each one to pay an equal share and proportion that shall 
be necessary therefor, to the Master or Preceptor thereof, for the 
time being ; — that all votes passed by a majority of us at any meet- 
ing warned in the following manner, shall be binding upon all of 
us respecting the regulation of said school or the support of the 
same ; that when any three or more of us the subscribers shall, in 
writing, under their hands, signify their desire to all the rest of us 
the subscribers, of a meeting and the subject thereof, and the time 
and place of the same, a meeting shall be called, fourteen days 
being the notice that shall be given of said meeting so intended. 



198 



EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 



The proprietors of said school not to exceed thirty -two persons in 
number, and to have and enjoy all the profit and advantages thereof, 
each one an equal share, for his and their sole use and benefit. In 
witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals, this 
12th day of September, Anno Domini, 1787. 



Daniel Emerson (Mollis,) 
Timo. Farrar, 
Francis Appleton, 
Josiah Rogers, 
Isaac Appleton, 
Ebenr. Sparhawk (Keene,) 
Laban Ainsworth (Jaffrey,) 
David Sherwin (Rindge,) 
Ebenr. Champney, 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
John Preston, 
Eleazer Cummings, 
James Chamberlain, 
Robert Wilson (Peterboro,) 
Aaron Brown (Groton,) 
Joseph Brown (Winchendon,) 



Stephen Farrar, 

John Gushing (Ashburnham,) 

John Lock (Ashby,) 

Charles Barrett, 

Ephraim Hart well, 

Leonard Whiting, 

Thomas Heald, 

John Warner, 

Benj. Adams, Jr., 

Thomas Fletcher, 

Reuben Kidder, 

Seth Payson (Rindge,) 

Wm. Gardner, (Rindge,) 

Saml. Gragg (Peterboro,) 

Nathan Merriam, 

Gen. Henry Woods (of Pepperell.) 



In furtherance of the object, Charles Barrett promised a 
donation of £100 ; and Dr. Hartshorne of Rindge also propos- 
ed to give thirty acres of land for the use of the Academy. 
Mr. Barrett was also desired to make inquiries on what terms 
a township of land at the eastward might be procured, to be 
appropriated to the support of the Academy ; and he was sub- 
sequently desired to procure the wild lands in Camden, Me., 
or such others as, with the advice of the Trustees, they might 
think best. A subscription for obtaining funds was also com- 
menced. 

Mr. John Hubbard was chosen the first Preceptor, with a 
salary of £60 for one year's service, and the school was open- 
ed in the school-house October 15, 1787. The tuition was 
twelve shillings quarterly in advance. At the end of the first 
year there was a deficit, which was supplied by an assess- 
ment of ten shillings on each of the proprietors. At the end 
of the second year there was a small balance in favor of the 
proprietors. 

As it became quite evident, after two years experiment, that 
the enterprise was likely to succeed, a subscription was ob- 



THE ACADEMY. 



199 




tained for erecting an Academy building ; and some of the 
contributions having been collected in building materials, and 
a plan procured, a committee was authorized to let the erec- 
tion of it to any one, provided he would complete the same 
for the subscriptions, and collect them himself Its dimen- 
sions were to be forty by thirty-eight feet, and one story high, 

making provision for 
hanging a bell on the 
same. Ebe'r. Foster 
took the contract. It 
was erected in 1789, 
about a hundred rods 
north of the meeting- 
house, on land given 
for the purpose by 
Rev. Mr. Farrar, to- 
gether with all the 
level plot between it and the common around the meeting-house 
for a play-ground. The building still stands, unpainted, as it 
ever was, having sometimes been used as a dwelling-house, 
and sometimes as a carpenter's or wheelwright's shop. The 
door and a window have changed places, and the little belfry 
has been removed. It was never graced with a bell, and was 
inaccessible except externally. It was once struck by light- 
ning and the roof set on fire ; on which occasion the precep- 
tor, Mr. Pierce, succeeded in ascending by the gable window 
and extinguished the fire. 

In 1780 a committee was chosen to apply for an Act of In- 
corporation, and "use their utmost exertion to get the same 
through the Court as soon as may be." This was accordingly 
done, and the following Charter of Incorporation was obtained. 

State of New Hampshire, anno 1789. 

An Act to incorporate an Academy in the town of New Ipswich, by 
the name of the New Ipswich Academy. 

Whereas the education of youth has ever been considered by the 
wise and good, as an object of the highest consequence to the safety 
and happiness of a people, as at an early period of life the mind 
easily receives and retains impressions, and is most susceptible of 
the rudiments of useful knowledge, and whereas the Hon. C. Bar- 



200 EDT'CATIONAL HISTORY. 

rett, of New Ipswich, County of Hillsboro', and sundry other per- 
sons, are desirous of giving to Trustees hereinafter named, certain 
lands and personal estate, to be by said Trustees forever appropri- 
ated and expended for the support of a public school or Academy in 
New Ipswich, and whereas the execution of such an important de- 
sign will be attended with very great embarrassments, unless by an 
Act of Incorporation said trustees and their successors shall be au- 
thorized to commence and prosecute actions at law, and transact 
such other matters in a corporate capacity as the interest of said 
Academy shall require. 

Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives in General Court convened, that there be, and hereby is estab- 
lished in the town of New Ipswich, in the County of Hillsboro', in 
said State, an Academy, by the name of the New Ipswich Acad- 
emy, for the purpose of promoting piety and virtue, and for the 
education of youth in the English, Latin and Greek languages, in 
Writing, Arithmetic, Music and the Art of Speaking, practical 
Geometry, Logic, Geography, and such other of the liberal arts and 
sciences or languages, as opportunity may hereafter permit, and as 
the Trustees hereinafter provided shall direct. 

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the 
Rev. Stephen Farrar, Hon. Charles Barrett, E. Hartwell, Esq., and 
John Hubbard of New Ipswich, Rev. D. Emerson of Hollis, Rev. 
S. Payson of Rindge, and Jacob Abbot, Esq. of Wilton, Rev. Joseph 
Brown of Winchendon, and Henry Wood, Esq. of Pepperell, be and 
they hereby are, nominated and appointed Trustees of said Acade- 
my, and they hereby are incorporated into a body politic, by the 
name of the Trustees of the New Ipswich Academy, and that they 
and their successors shall be and continue, a body politic and cor- 
porate by the same name forever. 

[Here follows authority for a common Seal — to sue and be sued, 
&c.] 

Be it further enacted that the said Farrar, and the other Trustees 
aforesaid, the longest livers and survivors of them and their succes- 
sors, be the true and sole Visitors, Trustees and Governors of the said 
Academy, in perpetual succession forever, to be continued in the 
way and manner hereinafter specified, with full power and author- 
ity to elect such officers of the said Academy, as they shall judge 
necessary and convenient, and to make and ordain such laws, orders 
and rules, for the good government of said Academy, as to them, the 
said Trustees, Governors and Visitors aforesaid, or their successors 
shall from time to time, according to the various occasions and 
circumstances, seem most fit and requisite; all which shall be 
observed by the officers, scholars and servants of the Academy, upon 
the penalties therein contained, provided that the said rules, laws 
and orders be in no way contrary to the laws of the State. 

[Trustees to be not more than 11 nor less than 7 — a majority to 



INCORPORATION OF THE ACADEMY. 201 

be a quorum, and majority present to decide, except as hereafter 
specified — the principal Instructor to be one of them, and a major part 
laymen and respectable freeholders.] And be it further enacted, 
that as often as one or more of the Trustees of the said Academy, 
shall die or resign, or in the judgment of a major part of the other 
Trustees be rendered, by age or otherwise, incapable of discharging 
the duties of his office, then and so often the Trustees surviving and 
remaining, or the major part of them, shall elect one or more per- 
sons to supply the vacancy or vacancies so happening. 

Be it further enacted^ that the Trustees aforesaid and their succes- 
sors, be and hereby are rendered capable in law, to take and receive 
by gift, grant, devise, bequest or otherwise, any lands, tenements or 
other estate, real or personal, provided that the annual income of 
said real estate shall not exceed the sum of £500, and the annual 
income of the said personal estate shall not exceed £2000, both 
sums to be valued in silver at the rate of 6s. 8d. per ounce, to have 
and to hold the same, to them the said Trustees and their successors 
on such terms and under such provisions and limitations as may be 
required in any deed or instrument of conveyance which shall be 
made to them, provided always that neither the said Trustees nor 
their successors shall ever hereafter receive any grant or donation 
the condition whereof shall require them, or any others concerned, 
to act in any respect counter to the design of the first grantors, or 
any prior donation 

Be it further enacted, that if it shall be hereafter judged, upon 
mature and impartial consideration of all circumstances, by three- 
fourths of all the Trustees, that for good and substantial reasons, 
which at this time do not exist, its interests will be promoted by re- 
moving the seminary from the place where it is founded, in that case 
it shall be in the power of the said Trustees to remove it according- 
ly, and to establish it in such place within this State as they shall 
judge to be best calculated for carrying into effect and real execu- 
tion, the intention of the founders. 

And whereas the said Institution may be of very great and gen- 
eral advantage to this State, and deserves every encouragement; 
Be it therefore enacted, that all ye lands, tenements and personal 
estate within the State, that shall be given to said Trustees for the 
use of said Academy, shall be and hereby are exempted from all 
taxes whatever, so long as they remain for the use of said Academy, 
and that the students at said Academy be exempted from paying a 
poll tax. 

State of New Hampshire, House of Representatives, June 17, 
1789, passed to be enacted and sent up. 

In Senate, June 18, 17S9, enacted. 

John Sullivan, President. 

Attest, Joseph Perrin, Secretary. 

26 



202 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

This was the second Academy incorporated in the State, 
PhiUips' Academy in Exeter having preceded it by five years. 
On the 19th of August, 1789, the Proprietary deUvered over to 
the Trustees all their papers, moneys, &c., and dissolved. 
The following extract from the Records will show the pecu- 
niary prospects of the Corporation at this time. 

•' Donations to the Academy : from sundry respectable gentle- 
men, who have thereby manifested the generosity of their benevo- 
lent hearts, in their noble exertions to establish an Academy in 
New Ipswich, for the promotion of useful knowledge in the rising 
generation : which donations are to remain in the hands and at the 
disposal of the Trustees of said Academy, so long as the said Trust 
shall support the education of youth in the same, according to the 
true intent and design of the Incorporation Charter ; and whenever 
said Trust shall fail of supporting said Academy accordingly, 
then the principal of each donation shall be faithfully and punctu- 
ally returned to the respective donors or to their assigns, without 
any embezzlement, fraud or unnecessary delay. 

Bonds solely for the support of the Preceptor. 

John Preston, £35 ; Thomas Fletcher, £50. 

Bonds for the support of the Academy. 

Ephraim Hartwell, £50 ; Isaac Appleton, £35 ; Josiah Batch- 
elder, £12 ; George Start, £10 ; Oliver Whiting, £10 ; Samuel 
Dana (for T. Farrar), £15 ; Eleazer Cummings, £15 ; Nathan 
Merriam, £15; Jeremiah Prichard, £15; Seth Wheeler, £12; 
Benja. Adams, Jr., £20 ; Charles Barrett, £100 ; Stephen Farrar, 
£15. 

Bond of C. Barrett, for a deed of 3000 acres of land in Camden. 

Bond of Stephen Farrar, for about 1 1-2 acres of land for the use 
of the Academy. 

Obligation of David Hills for a road to the Academy. 

Deed of 30 acres in Rindge from Dr. Ebenezer Hartshome. 

Bond for a deed of 50 acres in Andover, Vt., from Lieut. John 
Warner. All dated August 22, 1789. 

The Trustees chose Rev. Stephen Farrar for their President, 
and John Hubbard, Preceptor, with a salary of £65, his board 
and horse-keeping. They also adopted the old Laws and Re- 
gulations. Among these was a requirement, that in the sum- 
mer months the students should attend prayers and such other 
exercises as the Preceptor should propose, at six o'clock in 
the morning ; and afterwards have two sessions of three hours 
each, durmg which time they should study in the Academy. 



THE ACADEMY AND DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 203 

The Proprietors had appointed a committee, in 1787, to ap- 
ply to the President and Trustees of Dartmouth College to aid 
them in obtaining an act of incorporation, and also to ascer- 
tain if some terms of union could not be effected between the 
College and the Academy, whereby they might be of mutual 
assistance in furnishing students to each other. Such an ar- 
rangement was finally effected, in 1789, by which, on the one 
part, the College was to have a voice in the regulations and 
instruction of the Academy ; and, on the other hand, the stu- 
dents entering from the Academy were to be allowed to study 
a part of the College term at the Academy with a remission 
of their tuition, and to board out of Commons if they desired. 
The following is the record : . 

The Trustees of New Ipswich Academy having taken into con- 
sideration the several proposals made by the Honorable Trustees of 
Dartmouth College and the Trustees of said Academy, respecting 
a union between said College and Academy, contained in several 
letters and other papers, voted the same, according to the following 
statement, viz : 

I. The appointment of Instructors made by the Trustees of said 
Academy, and their continuance in office, shall be subject to the 
approbation of said College, 

II. The laws and regulations of said Academy shall be conform- 
able to the laws of Dartmouth College, so far as the different cir- 
cumstances will admit, and subject to the approval of the Board of 
said College. 

III. Those students who shall be fitted at said Academy, and en- 
tered as members of said College, shall be thereupon indulged in the 
privilege of studying in said Academy, under the direction of the 
Eector thereof, in such cases and for such part of the time as the 
President, with the advice of the other executive officers of the Col- 
lege, subject to the direction of the Board, may from time to time 
judge consistent ; which shall be at least one quarter part of the 
time ; — if thought proper by the Executive authority of said Acade- 
my. Provided that the liberty so qualified be confined to the first 
part of their collegiate standing ; and students so indulged, shall 
have one half of their tuition bills at said College remitted for such 
term of time as they have liberty of absence from said College. 

IV. Those students who shall be fitted at said Academy, and en- 
tered at said College, shall have the privilege of boarding out of 
Commons if desired, at such places as may be approved by the Ex- 
ecutive authority of said College. 

Mr. Hubbard continued in office till 1795, his salary hav- 
ing been increased to £95, when he resigned ; and on settle- 



204 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

merit, the arrears due to him were found to be £105.105. He 
had been assisted at different periods, by S. Crossat, Jesse Ap- 
pleton and Darius Shaw. 

The funds at this time had been somewhat increased by a 
donation of £30 from Seth Payson, the proceeds of which 
were to be devoted to the education of needy scholars, reserv- 
ing to himself the right to nominate the persons to receive it. 
Another donation of £20 had been made by Mr. Jacob Abbot, 
of Andover. The whole fund, exclusive of a bond of Charles 
Barrett for a township of land, was £419. This bond for 
three thousand acres of land was commuted, in 1806, into a 
note for $221.14, as balance due ; and it is believed that the 
note was allowed to run until it became outlawed ; and Mr. 
Barrett's death supervening before it was renewed, nothing 
was ever realized from it. 

After a short interval, Mr. Samuel Worcester, who had fit- 
ted for college under Mr. Hubbard, was secured as Preceptor, 
and maintained the reputation of the school successfully. 
Having been ordained for the ministry, and being desirous of 
entering at once upon his vocation, he resigned in 1798, and 
was succeeded by Mr. David Palmer, afterwards the minister 
in Townsend. Mr. Palmer was to receive the interest of the 
fund and the tuition, "he to find wood, and pay for repairs, 
and other expenses." After one year he also resigned. The 
school was closed during the winter, and from April to Sep- 
tember instruction was given by Mr. Peter Cochran. From 
September 1799 to September 1801, Mr. Warren Pierce offici- 
ated as Preceptor, upon the same terms as those given Mr. 
Palmer, with three months vacations. 

Thus far the school seems to have had a high reputation, 
and to have fulfilled all the expectations of its friends. Many 
of the sons of New Ipswich had, in the mean time, received a 
preparation for college without leaving their own homes, and 
many others from neighboring towns had also received their 
preliminary education here, who became afterwards distin- 
guished in life ; among whom may be mentioned Dr. Twitch- 
ell of Keene, Dr. George C. Shattuck of Boston, Hon. Levi 
Woodbury, Hon. Amos Kendall, Rev. Edward Payson, Dea. 
Samuel Greely of Boston, Thomas G, Fessenden, and others. 



THE ACADEMY. 205 

At this period, however, seems to have occurred one of 
those intervals of depression which, hke the ebbing and flow- 
ing of the tide, are so certain to occur in all associations. 
There seems even to have been a doubt whether it would be 
best to attempt to sustain the interest. The Corporation was 
directed to call in all demands, and call on all debtors to pay 
the interest of their bonds, the avails of which were to go as 
far as they might towards paying liabilities ; and they were 
to take the minds of all donors in writing, with respect to con- 
tinuing the Academy in operation. Their decision seems to 
have been in favor of continuance ; for in 1804, after the school 
had been closed for two years, Mr. Joseph Mulliken was 
offered the position of preceptor, if he would accept it for the 
interest of the funds and the tuition. This he saw fit to do ; 
and continued to instruct until the autumn of 1807 with pretty 
good success. The tuition at this time was from seventeen to 
twenty-five cents per week, at the discretion of the preceptor. 
A code of laws was adopted, enforcing attendance on morning 
prayers and the observance of the Lord's day ; forbidding 
absences from town or recitations without leave, and trespass 
for fruit or diversion ; and requiring of the preceptor a thor- 
ough knowledge of the qualifications of a student before giv- 
ing him a certificate to keep school. These rules were posted 
up, and required to be publicly read once a month. 

The productive funds at this time (1807) were found to be 
$2069.29 ; and although there seems to have been, some mis- 
givings, it was voted " to put the Academy in operation on 
the old funds, considering the prospect we have of a perma- 
nent addition." In the spring of 1808, Benjamin White was 
chosen preceptor, and the opening of the school on the first of 
April was duly advertised ; but in the autumn he was releas- 
ed by the Trustees to pursue the study of Theology. He was 
succeeded by Mr. Oliver Swain Taylor, who entered upon the 
duties of preceptor, which he exercised with much success for 
three years. In 1810 the number of students was eighty-five, 
thirty of whom were females, under the instruction of Mrs. 
Mitchell (afterwards Mrs. Peter Batchelder) ; and one of the 
small rooms was fitted up for her accommodation. This was 
the first time a preceptress had been employed. There were 



206 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

thirty-five pursuing classical studies. It was one of the ad- 
ministrations which are now and then signalized by a revival 
of interest and an unusual degree of prosperity and encourage- 
ment. In 1809 the citizens seem to have been awakened to a 
sense of the value of the Academy, and to the necessity of 
contributing substantially and liberally to its support. Ac- 
cordingly, bonds were given by twenty-one persons for the 
payment, in various sums, of $49.10 annually, during life; by 
thirteen persons $49.10 annually for ten years ; by thirteen 
persons for $19.50 annually, during their residence. 

After the resignation of Mr. Taylor, another period of de- 
pression seems to have ensued. In 1812, there was quite a 
rebellion among the students, and many of them left the 
Academy. They complained that the preceptor was not suffi- 
ciently accurate in the languages ; and a committee of inquiry 
having satisfied themselves that there was ground for the 
complaint, voted to settle with him, and proceed to the selec- 
tion of a substitute. From this time up to 1817, the school 
went quietly on, under the instruction of Messrs, Hart Talcott, 
Jesse Smith and Elijah Demond. 

In 1816-17, it having been deemed desirable to erect a new 
building in a diiferent location, and the town being also at the 
same time desirous of accommodations for the town meetings, 
an arrangement was entered into, so that by the joint contri- 
bution of the old meeting-house, the old academy, and a sub- 
scription raised in behalf of the Academy, a building should 
be erected to embrace the purposes of a Town House and 
Academy. To this we have already adverted, p. 133. The 
Trustees were at first unwilling that the building should be 
located so far south ; but on the whole, they consented, and 
united with the town on condition that a title to the land 
should be secured — that the bonds for the new contributions 
to the Fund should all be presented to the Treasurer before 
the raising of the building ; and that the subscription to the 
building should be secured. 

With the new edifice, the substantial addition to the funds, 
and a new preceptor, Mr. Earl Smith, the interest received 
quite a new impulse, and the number of scholars was largely 
increased. So encouraging were the prospects, that arrange- 



THE ACADEMY. 207 

ments were again made for a preceptress (Miss Susan Eaton) 
who taught a large class in the summer of 1818. Mr. Smith 
continued the school with good success for three years, at a 
salary of $200 and the tuition fees. Avhich still continued at 
from twenty to twenty-five cents a week. 

The following extract from a letter from Charles Barrett, 
Esq. to Samuel Appleton, Esq., his former partner in business, 
written about this time, will show not only what had recently 
been done, and some of the wants of the Academy, but also to 
whom it was indebted for the suggestion and the bestowment 
of a most valuable donation. 

'- We have built an elegant Academy, 45 by 36 feet, two stories 
high, with a handsome Apparatus and Library room ; but the great 
misfortune is, we have no Apparatus or Library to put in it. In 
addition to building the house, we have added $1500 to the fund. 
In fact, the Academy would now be upon as respectable a footing as 
any in the State, had it a pair of small Globes and a small Philoso- 
phical Apparatus and Library. It is natural for all men to feel a 
partiality for their native town ; and they ought to feel a laudable 
pride in its prosperity. We must acknowledge that the Academy 
in this place has added much to the respectability of the town, and 
has been a great help to many who now make a figure in the world. 
Should any of your friends think fit to make a small donation in 
the above articles, however small, it will be thankfully received and 
suitable notice taken of the same." 

The sentiments advanced in the above letter are worthy the 
consideration of the natives of New Ipswich at all times. Mr. 
Appleton nobly responded to the above hint, by sending the 
Globes, and with them one hundred volumes for the nucleus 
of a Library. At the same time his brother, Isaac Appleton of 
Dublin, N. H., contributed a large and curious folio volume on 
Genealogy. Nothing could have been more timely than these 
donations ; and never shall we forget the impression made 
upon our youthful imagination by the contemplation of this 
collection of one hundred well-bound volumes, and the respect 
then inspired for its princely donor. 

The thanks of the Trustees were voted to the donors, and 
it was ordered that suitable cases for the reception and preser- 
vation of the books should be constructed, and that they be 
marked so as to transmit to posterity the name of the donor. 



208 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

A committee was also chosen to inquire respecting the Library 
of the Demosthenian Society, and if it could be united with the 
books recently received. The representatives of the Society 
offered to deposit its books and funds, provided the books be 
not loaned contrary to the rules of the Society, and that the 
income of the funds be used for the purchase of books. 

No apparatus of any sort has been provided for the Acade- 
my, except an electrical machine and a few other instruments 
for philosophical experiments, which were obtained by sub- 
scription about the year 1830. 

In 1831, a fine Bell was presented to the Academy by Mrs. 
Dolly Everett, sister of the Appletons, to whom the Institution 
has been so often and so largely indebted. The thanks of the 
Trustees were voted. 

For five or six years after the first occupation of the new 
building, the school flourished, under the administration of 
Amasa Edes, Rufus A. Putnam and Cranmore Wallace. 
Then came a period of depression for two or three years. In 
1827, it is recorded that the school was " very small." And 
again, under the care of Mr. Robert A. Coffin, assisted by Mrs. 
Coffin, the Institution rose to a high pitch of prosperity; so 
much so, that the Trustees more than once officially expressed 
their approbation of his administration ; and when he was 
about to leave, in 1833, they took the opportunity to express 
their high sense of his faithful and successful instructions 
while at the head of the Institution. And on the withdrawal 
of his assistant and successor, Mr. Stephen T. Allen, at the 
end of the following year, they expressed their thanks for the 
efficient and very satisfactory manner in which he had dis- 
charged his duties as Principal. 

In 1835, Charles Shedd was engaged as Preceptor, and re- 
mained in office until his resignation in 1841. At this time it 
was thought judicious to build or purchase a house, for the 
accommodation of students, in which they might be furnished 
with cheap rent, and board themselves in their rooms, and 
thus materially diminish their expenses ; and a committee was 
appointed to confer with Mr. Shedd on the subject. The 
result was, that a contract was made with Mr. James Rand 
to build " Students' Hall," on land given by the town for the 



DONATION OF SAMUEL APPLETON. 209 

purpose, for !^1200. This sum was withdrawn from the per- 
manent fund, one half of which was thus expended. The 
building has not answered the expectations of the Trustees, 
and indeed has scarcely been used for the purpose intended, 
of late years. 

So far as the number of students is concerned, the Academy 
has continued almost uniformly to be well sustained to the 
present time. But the funds became still further diminished 
by necessary repairs and alterations, so as not to afford means 
for satisfactorily sustaining such instructors as the age de- 
mands, and such facilities as were necessary to compete with 
kindred institutions. Some important, though still inadequate 
additions were made to the funds by subscription in 1846. 
Struggling thus Avith the bare means of subsistence, and ap- 
prehensive of entire failure, it gave occasion to enthusiastic 
joy, when at the Centennial celebration, and in the presence 
of so many who had enjoyed the benefits of the Institution, it 
was announced that Samuel Appleton had again come to the 
rescue, and after a just eulogium on the character of the first 
settlers of the town, especially on the founders of the Acad- 
emy, had promised to pay to the Trustees of the New Ips- 
wich Academy Five Thousand Dollars, " to enable that Insti- 
tution to assume its former standing, and extend its future 
usefulness." It is expected that an equal sum will be added 
by other natives of New Ipswich ; and if so, we see not why 
this Academy should not continue to be one of the most effec- 
tive, as it is one of the most ancient, in the State. Nothing 
more is needed than a just appreciation, on the part of the citi- 
zens, of the paramount importance of the Academy to the pros- 
perity of the town and the well-being of their offspring, and 
an active interest in sustaining it. Let them sustain it, at 
whatever sacrifice. Let them, as soon as may be, erect an 
edifice more in accordance with recent improvements in school 
architecture, and the anticipated fund will be sufficient to se- 
cure adequate instruction, Avith appropriate illustrations. 

The following is believed to be a complete list of the Pre- 
ceptors, though it has not been possible in all instances to 
ascertain the dates of appointments and resignations. 
27 



k 



210 



EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 



1789 
1796- 
1797 
1799, 
1799- 
1803- 
1807. 
1808- 
1812. 
1813. 
1814 
1816. 
1817. 
1818- 
Dr. 
tion ; 



-95. John Hubbard.^ 
■97. Samuel Worcester. 
-98. David Palmer. 

Peter Cochran, a. b. 
•1801. Warren Pierce. 
•7. Joseph Mulliken. 

Benjamin White. 
11. Oliver Swain Taylor. 

Luke Eastman. 

Hart Talcott. 
-15. Jesse Smith. 

Horace Hatch. 

Elijah Demond. 

Earl Smith. 



1820-22. Amasa Edes. 

Eufus A. Putnam. 

1825. Cranmore Wallace. 

1826. Luther Smith. 

1827. Seth H. Keeler. 
1828-33. Robert A. Coffin. 

1833. Asahel Foote. 
1833-34. Stephen T. Allen. 
1834-41. Charles Shedd. 

1841. Josiah Crosby. 

1842. James K. Colby. 
1842-44. Abner S. Warner. 
1844-51. Edward A. Lawrence. 



20. 

Warren taught a few months in 1814, and died of consump- 

Mr. Fessenden also officiated a few months. 



The following is a list of the Trustees, with the dates of 
their appointment and resignation, so far as can be ascer- 
tained. 

Rev. Stephen Farrar, 1787-1809. 
Charles Barrett, Esq., 1787-9. 
Ephraim Hartvvell, Esq., 1787-9. 
Joseph Brown, 1789-93. 
Rev. Seth Payson, D. D., 1789-1820. 
Rev. Daniel Emerson, 1789-1800. 
Henry Woods, 1789-94. 



Jacob Abbot, 1789-94. 

John Hubbard, 1789. 

Dr. John Preston, 1790-91. 

Hon. Timothy Farrar, 1790-1848. 

Thomas Fletcher, 1791-3. 

Rev. Noah Miles, 1793-94. 

Jonathan Searle, 1793. 



* John Hubbard was born in Townsend, August 8, 1759. His 
father had died before his birth, and he worked on a farm during 
his minority. He commenced study at the age of twenty-one, and 
the next year entered Dartmouth College. After graduating, he 
entered upan the study of Theology and commenced preaching, but 
found his voice too feeble for that vocation. He was engaged as 
the first Preceptor of the Academy, and soon brought it into public 
favor. He left town in 1797, and after teaching a while in Wal- 
pole, was appointed Judge of Probate for Cheshire County in 1798, 
which office he held till 1802, and then resigned. He then became 
Preceptor of Deerfield Academy ; but on the death of Prof. Wood- 
ward in 1804, he was elected to the vacant chair of Mathematics 
and Natural Philosophy in Dartmouth College, where he offici- 
ated till his death, August 14, 1810, aged 51. He was not only an 
excellent instructor, but an exemplary Christian and public-spirited 
citizen ; and the town is much indebted to him for the spirit he in- 
fused and the institutions he founded. He was noted for his mu- 
sical taste and talents, and did much towards forming a just and 
elevated standard of church music in town. 



DEMOSTHENIAN SOCIETY. 211 

Rev. Abel Fiske, 1794. Joseph Barrett, 1824. 

Robert Smith, 1794. Rev. Isaac R. Barbour, 1825-27. 

Ebenezer Edwards, 1794-1817. O. P. Eaton, 1826-31. 

Jeremiah Prichard, 1800-13. Rev. Charles Walker, 1827-36. 

Rev, Cornelius Waters, 1803. Rev. A. W. Burnham, 1831. 

Isaiah Kidder, 1809. Ephraim H. Farrar, 1831. 

Benjamin Champney, Esq., 1810-17. John Clark, 1831-32. 

Dr. John Preston, Jr., 1812-29. William Ainsworth, 1833-42. 

Rev. Richard Hall, 1812-25. Isaac Adams, 1831. 

Samuel Batchelder, 1813-17 ; 1826. Rev. Samuel Lee, 1836. 

Rev. Ebenezer Hill, 1813-37. David Perry, 1837-44. 

Rev. David Palmer, 1816-37. Rev. Frederick A. Adams, 1837-44. 

Charles Barrett, 1816. William W. Johnson, 1842. 

N. D. Gould, 1817-24. George Barrett, 1844. 

Dr. James Crombie, 1817-23. Stephen Thayer, 1844. 

Rev. Thos. Beedee, 1820-29. William Olmstead, 1849. 

Peter Felt, 1823-31. Supply Wilson, 1849. 

Connected with the Academy was the Demosthenian Soci- 
ety. It was mstituted about the year 1793, by the efforts of 
Preceptor Hubbard, for exercises in declamation, composition 
and debate. It was composed chiefly of students of the Acad- 
emy, but other young men of the town were also admitted. 
Like some other Literary Societies, it had its secret shibboleth. 
Its constitution was written in a character devised for the pur- 
pose, and could be read by three persons only. At last only 
one person was left who could read it (Timothy Preston) and 
he was therefore made perpetual Secretary. For many years 
it was well sustained. Dramatic exhibitions were annually 
given for ten or twelve years, at which dialogues and other 
pieces, many of them written by the members, were performed. 
One of these exhibitions, in 1801, is alluded to in the " New 
Year's Gift," and the preceptor severely castigated for de- 
manding extra pay, 

" Because he heard the brethren speak 
Their pieces, once or twice a week," 

he himself being one of the members. A Library of three or 
four hundred well-selected volumes was procured. 

About the year 1810, the Society ceased to hold its meet- 
ings, and the Library was very little used. The remnants of 
it were deposited with the Academy Library in 1818, as we 
have seen, and the Society was again renovated, ten or twelve 
years afterwards, under the name of the " Social Fraternity." 



212 EDUCATIOiNAL HISTORY. 

The amount of general intelligence and of literary cultiva- 
tion in this town has been somewhat remarkable. The first 
settlers were very many of them substantial and well-educated 
men ; and among them were at least three professional men, 
who had enjoyed a college education. But it is to the Acad- 
emy we are to look as the main source of this distinction. 
The men who established it were far-sighted and liberal. 
" They had just passed through the war of the Revolution, 
impoverished, distressed and heart-stricken by the blood and 
treasure it had cost ; and as the waves of oppression which 
had for years been dashing over them, were retiring from our 
shores, they hesitated not, even at such a time, to draw from 
their remaining resources to an extent unknown in these days, 
to establish and endow an Institution which had for its object, 
as is set forth in its charter, the promotion of piety and virtue 
as well as of literature, science, &c. Thus they clearly show 
that they understood the foundation of Republican Govern- 
ment ; that Knowledge was the only ark of our political salva- 
tion, and Virtue the Ararat on which it must rest." * It has 
brought into town a large number of liberally educated men as 
Instructors — such men as Hubbard, Worcester, Palmer, MuUi- 
ken and Smith, and many, more recently, who need not be 
named. They have given a literary cast to the town, and 
have created a taste for investigation and sound learning. 
There have been attracted hither, from all quarters, numerous 
young men of distinguished talents, who have mingled with 
the citizens, elevated the standard of general intelligence, and 
brought wealth to them. But above all, facilities have been 
furnished to the resident youth of both sexes, which they 
would not otherwise have enjoyed ; and there have been very 
few who have not availed themselves of these advantages. 
Hence it is, that a very large proportion of the young men has 
received a liberal education. At one time, 1791, there were 
no less than ten students in Dartmouth College from New 
Ipswich. In alluding to the people at the time the Rev. Sam- 
uel Worcester gave a Fourth of July oration, his biographer 
remarks, that " there were not many places in New Hamp- 

* Address of E. H. Farrar, Esq. 



GRADUATES OF COLLEGES. 213 

shire, or in any part of the interior of all New England, where, 
within the same territorial limits, so great a number of well 
educated people of both sexes could have been convened on 
the Fourth of July, 1796." It would appear that since the 
establishment of the Academy, in a population of about 1200, 
one young man annually has been graduated at some college. 
Among them we enumerate a President, a Professor and a 
Tutor of a College ; twenty clergymen, three of whom have 
become missionaries ; eight physicians ; twelve lawyers, four 
of whom have become judges ; and numerous instructors. 
Besides these, the number of those who have received an ad- 
vanced English education, and have become efficient common 
school teachers, is very large. A great proportion of the 
younger people, both male and female, have been engaged in 
teaching, before they have arrived at the age of twenty-five. 
The beneficial effect of the Academy in thus elevating the 
mass of intelligence — in the cultivation of good manners, and 
in affording opportunities for enjoying rational intercourse at 
home, and of observation abroad, is incalculable. The citi- 
zens will never allow this Institution to languish for want of 
any patronage or aid on their part, if they understand their 
true interest. The difference between sending children away 
from home for an education, and of receiving others from 
abroad amongst them would soon be felt. 

The following is a list of persons born in New Ipswich, or 
who have spent their early lives and received their prelimina- 
ry education in the town, who have received degrees at Col- 
leges. Most of them will receive further notice under the 
families to which they belong. 



Ebenezer Adams, 


Dartmouth College, 


1791. 


Joseph Appleton, 


" 




1791. 


Moses Appleton, 


u 




1791. 


Reuben Kidder, 


(( 




1791. 


John Preston, 


([ 




1791. 


Jesse Appleton, 


(( 




1792. 


Asa Bullard, 


(1 




1793. 


Samuel Farrar, 


Harvard 


College, 


1793. 


Charles Barrett, 


Dartmouth College, 


1794. 


Thomas Heald, 


a 


(( 


1794. 


Reuben Emerson, 


(( 


(( 


1798. 



214 



EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 



Perley Prichard, 


Dartmouth College, 


1799. 


William Warren, 


(( li 


1800. 


Brown Emerson, 


(( u 


1802. 


Elijah Parker, 


(f (I 


1806. 


Josiali P. Cooke, 


l( u 


1807. 


Timothy Farrar, 


U (( 


1807. 


Oliver S. Taylor, 


(( (( 


1809. 


Samuel Blood, 


(( (( 


1812. 


Stephen F. Jones, 


Yale College, 


1812. 


Eodney G. Dennis,^ 


Bowdoin College, 


181G. 


Ebenezer Cheever,t 


a u 


1817. 


Phinehas Pratt, 


u a 


1817. 


Ebenezer Newhall, 


Harvard College, 


1818. 


John Appleton, 


Bowdoin College, 


1822. 


John Preston, 


Harvard College, 


1823. 


John Taylor Jones, 


Amherst College, 


1824. 


Aug-ustus A. Gould, 


Harvard College, 


1825. 


Addison Brown, 


(( (( 


1826. 


Henry Shedd, 


Dartmouth College, 


1826. 


Charles Shedd, 


(( a 


1826. 


Nathan Brown, 


Williams College, 


1827. 


John S. Brown, 


(( (( 


1832. 


Frederic A. Adams, 


(( (( 


1833. 


Timothy Stearns, 


Amherst College, 


1833. 


J. G. D. Stearns, 


(( a 


1835. 


Horace Hall, 


Dartmouth College, 


1839. 


Frederic S. Ainsworth 


K 1( 


1840. 


Timothy F. Clary, 


li (( 


1841. 


Josiah M. Stearns, 


Amherst College, 


1842. 


John Giles, 


Dartmouth College, 


1842. 


John P. Perry, 


(( ti 


1842. 


David Perry, 






George E. King, 


Union College, 




Richard Hall, 


Dartmouth College, 


1847. 


George Clary, 


(( (( 




Besides these, Benjamin Champney, Jr., John Bartlett and Joseph 


Appleton Barrett died while in College. Nathan 


Appleton entered 


College, but did not graduate 


; he received the honorary degree of 


Master of Arts from Harvard College in 1844. E 


ugene Batchelder 


received the degree of Bachelor of Laws at Harvard University in 


1844. 






Several others have studied professions, who were not graduates 



* Born in Gofistovvn, studied Theology at Andover ; settled at Topsfield, 
Mass., and Somers, Con. ; now resides at Grafton, Mass. 

t Born in Andover, Vt. Studied Tiieoiogy at Andover ; settled at Mount 
Vernon, afterwards at Newark, N. J. ; now at Milwaukie. 



LAWYERS — PHYSICIANS. 215 

of any college. Among them may be mentioned Rev. John Chand- 
ler of Shirley ; Rev. Thomas Fletcher ; Hon. Stetson of 

Bangor ; John Cutter, Esq. of Stoddard ; George Willey, Esq. of 
Cleveland ; Dr. Benoni Cutter of Hollis ; Dr. Oliver Scripture of 
Hollis; Dr. Kendall Davis of Reading ; Dr. Bigelow of Louisville. 

The following persons have practised Law. 

Timothy Farrar, John Muzzy, 

Ebenezer Champney, Abel Conant,t 

Benjamin Champney, George F. Farley,! 

Noah Cook,* John Preston. 



PHYSICIANS. 

Doctor John Preston came to the town and commenced the 
practice of Medicine as early as 1762, and for about fifteen 
years was the only physician in town. He died 1803. 

Dr. Thomas Swain was taxed in town in 1771. 

Dr. Eben Harnden Goss was taxed in 1771 and 1772. 

Dr. Nathaniel Breed resided in town from 1786 to 1789. 
He took some part in town affairs, btit probably did not be- 
come established in business. 

Dr. John Preston, Jr., studied medicine with his father, 
and with Dr. Holyoke, and commenced practice about 1798. 
For twenty years he had nearly all the business of the town, 
and a large share of it till his death in 1828. 

Dr. Timothy Preston, son of Dr. John Preston, Sen., com- 
menced practice in Rochester, N. Y. 1807, where he remained 
a short time and returned to New Ipswich. He practised 
some time in Mason and also in Dover. 

Dr. James Barr was the son of James Barr, who came from 
Scotland. He was educated principally at the Academy, and 
studied medicine under Dr. Haskell of Lunenburg and Dr. 

* Noah Cook was a Chaplain in Stark's hrigade during the Revolution. His 
service money was collected by Gen. Stark, and it was with much diihcuhy that 
Mr. Cook obtained it, as the popularity of the General was such that jurors would 
not give judgment against hini. 

t Abel Conant was a native of Hollis. He studied law with Benj. Champnej' ; 
married a daughter of Professor Hubbard ; practiced in this town six or eight 
years ; removed to Lowell about the year 1826, where he still resides. 

t G. F. Farley was a native of Hollis ; graduated at Harvard College 1816 ; 
studied law with Mark Eastman of Hollis ; opened an office here in 1819 ; and 
had a large and lucrative business until he removed to Groton about 1830. 



216 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

Twitchell of Keene, and attended Medical Lectures at Boston 
and Hanover, at which latter place he received his degree. 
He commenced practice about 1816, and having more preten- 
sions to surgical skill than any of the neighboring physicians, 
he soon became knov/n. His practice increased slowly, but 
surely ; and during the last twenty years of his life he had a 
large business. For three or four years previous to his death, 
he suffered severely from pulmonary disease, but did not sus- 
pend his labors ; and when too feeble to manage his horse, he 
was driven from place to place by his wife or some one else. 
He died while on a visit to Boston, June 6, 1845, aged 55. 
He was a cautious, skilful and conscientious physician. As a 
man he was modest, sincere, upright in all his dealings, cour- 
teous to other practitioners in town, never engaging in con- 
troversial matters either political or religious ; and was uni- 
versally respected. 

Dr. Moors Farwell came from Harvard ; commenced prac- 
tice in town about the year 1813. He had not obtained a re- 
gular medical education, and did not gain the confidence of the 
people very extensively, though he remained in town till about 
1838, when he removed to Illinois. 

Dr. Calvin Brown practised in town from 1828 to 32. 

Dr. William Gallup resided in town about the years ] 833-6. 

Dr. John Clough received a medical degree at Dartmouth 
College, and practised here from 1837-40, when he removed 
to Boston, where he practises Dentistry. 

Dr. Henry Gibson, son of Dr. Stillman Gibson, studied 
medicine partly in New Ipswich and partly in Boston, and 
received a medical degree at Dartmouth in 1841. He was an 
amiable and judicious man, and rapidly acquired the confi- 
dence of the citizens. With every prospect of extensive use- 
fulness and eminence, he was removed by death, July 25th, 
1844, aged 25. 

Dr. L. H. Cochran was born in GofTstown, and took his 
medical degree at Dartmouth. Commenced practice about 
1840, and is now the principal practitioner in the place. 

Dr. KiTTREDGE has resided in town about five years. 

Dr. Frederic Jones has recently commenced, and lives at 
tlie south town. 



MISSIONARIES. 217 

We must not omit, in the list of medical practitioners, Dr. 
Stillman Gibson, whose business and fame has probably 
extended beyond that of either of those above-mentioned. 
Though not enjoying the advantages of a medical education, 
with good natural abilities, good common sense, and careful 
observation and self-reliance, he has attained no mean de- 
gree of skill. In early life he gave some attention to the 
diseases of horses and cattle, in which he was regarded as 
peculiarly skilful. He then devised plasters and herb-drinks, 
which gained such repute that he was at last compelled to 
devote his Avhole time to the demands of this kind made upon 
him. Since then he has been flooded with patients from all 
quarters and all distances, and has often been called far away 
by those whom his fame has reached. In dyspeptic and 
nervous aflections and in cases of general debility, he has had 
the faculty of inspiring a confidence which few of higher rank 
would have succeeded in obtaining, and which has revived 
the spirits and led to those exertions which have resulted in 
great benefit. Unlike most so-called irregular practitioners, 
who are usually ready to treat any case, whether understood 
or not, provided it will pay, he has ever declined treating 
diseases which he was conscious he did not understand', with- 
out frankly declaring it. He has always been hospitable to 
the stranger, kind and benevolent to all, moderate and consid- 
erate in his charges, never taking advantage of the necessities 
of those who consulted him ; and while he might have amass- 
ed a large fortune, is still a man of moderate means. 

MISSIONARIES. 

Among the most distinguished of the sons and daughters of 
New Ipswich, are those who have entered upon the Mission- 
ary field. From the following notices, it will appear that 
protestant missions to two of the nations of the East have been 
founded by New Ipswich men ; and they bear the reputation 
of having been among the most discreet and learned of that 
devoted class of men. 

John Taylor Jones was born in New Ipswich in 1802, and was 
the son of Elisha and Persia Jones. He joined the church in 1S17, 
at which time he worked in the bakery of Joseph Davis ; studied 
28 



218 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

at New Ipswich and Bradford Academies ; graduated at Amherst, 
1825 ; studied Theology at Andover and Newton ; joined the Fed- 
eral Street Baptist Church in Boston 1S2S ; ordained July 1S30 ; 
sailed as missionary to Burmah in August, and remained at Maul- 
main two years, when he was designated to found the Siam mission ; 
arrived at Bankok 1833 ; received the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
from Columbian College, 1850 ; visited China and twice returned to 
America before his death, which occurred at Bankok, from dysente- 
ry, Sept. 1851, at the age of 49. He was thrice married. 

As a missionary, the following character is given of him by the 
Secretary of the Board of Missions : " He laid the foundations of 
the Siam Mission, and they were laid sure. His department of 
missionary labor was more especially, and of necessity, linguistic. 
He was first, of American missionaries, to obtain a radical knowl- 
edge of the Siamese tongue. It rested on him, in great measure, 
to fix the Siamese usage of theological terms. The first religious 
tracts, with the exception of two unsuccessful attempts, were pre- 
pared and published by him. To him was assigned, more than all, 
translating into Siamese the word of God. For this high service 
Dr. Jones, by native endowments and severe study, was well pre- 
pared. He was a careful student, discriminating, well balancing, 
laborious. He was acquainted with the original language of the 
Bible, and well versed in the science of biblical interpretation. His 
conclusions as to the meaning of the sacred text were ordinarily 
reliable, and his words skilfully chosen in which to convey it. The 
entire New Testament in Siamese, translated by him and revised in 
a second edition, is an honorable memorial of his biblical scholar- 
ship and his idiomatic familiarity with the Siamese language. 
Other portions of the Scriptures were also translated by Dr. Jones ; 
and of some of them it has been stated, such is their accuracy and 
delicacy of finish, that not unfrequently they are referred to by the 
most intelligent of the nobles as among the choicest specimens of 
Siamese literature." [Missionary Magazine, March, 1852, in which 
a full sketch of his character is given.] 

Nathan Brown, born June 22, 1807, son of Nathan and Betsy 
Brown ; converted and joined the Baptist church at Whitingham, 
Vt., 1816 ; graduated at Williams College 1827 ; taught at Ips- 
wich, Concord, N. H., and Bennington, Vt. ; studied Theology a 
short time at Newton Seminary ; licensed at Brandon, Vt. 1831 ; 
edited Vermont Telegraph 1831; ordained at Rutland 1837; em- 
barked as a missionary of the Baptist Board to Burmah Dec. 1832; 
reached Maulmain June 1833 ; soon went to found the mission in 
Assam, a region until then unvisited by the Gospel, and where he 
has since labored faithfully, and almost alone, at Jaipur and Sibsa- 
gor. The Secretary of the Board declares that Mr. B. will bear 
comparison with any missionary in the world. We have in posses- 
sion a newspaper in the Assamese language and character, of which 
he is editor. 



PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO THE TOWN. 219 

Samuel B. Fairbank, son of John B. Fairbank, was educated at 
Jacksonville, Illinois. Is attached to the Bombay Mission. 

Lucy B. Mits^or, daughter of Levi Baily, was bom July 18, 
1819 ; joined the Church in 1830 ; married Rev. Eastman S. Mi- 
nor ; arrived at Ceylon 1834; died at Manepy June 29, 1837. 

Abby M. S. Cummings, daughter of Jesse and Lucinda Stearns, 
born July 24, 1822; joined the Church 1834; attended New Ips- 
wich Academy and Mount Holyoke Seminary ; married Rev. Sen- 
eca Cummings Oct. 1847 ; sailed for China 1847, and is now sta- 
tioned at Fuh-Chau. 

Jane C. Ireland, daughter of Supply and Sarah Wilson, born 
Jan. 18, 1820 ; joined the Church 1831 ; educated at New Ipswich 
Academy ; was a teacher five years ; married Rev. William Ire- 
land ; sailed as a missionary to South Africa 1848, and is now 
stationed at Ifumi among the Zulus. 



The following works, relating to the History or the Inhab- 
itants of New Ipswich, have been published. 

Sermon preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Stephen Farrar 
to the pastoral care of the Church in New Ipswich, in the Province 
of New Hampshire, Oct. 22, 1760. By William Lawrence, A.M. 
Boston, N. E. 1761. 

Oration on the Fourth of July, 1796. By Samuel Worcester. 

Narrative of the Captivity and Sufferings of Ebenezer Fletcher, 
of New Ipswich, who was wounded and taken prisoner at the Bat- 
tle of Hubbardston, Vt., in 1777, &c. Written by himself. First 
printed about 1800 : A fourth edition was printed by Salmon Wil- 
der, in New Ipswich, 1827. 

The Death of the Godly lamented ; a Sermon delivered at New 
Ipswich June 26, 1809, at the Interment of the Rev. Stephen Far- 
rar, A, M., Pastor of the Church in that place. By Seth Payson. 
12mo. Amherst, 1810. 

Sermon delivered at New Ipswich June 3, 1811, at the Inter- 
ment of the remains of Miss Ruthy Batchelder, daughter of Josiah 
and Ruth Batchelder, who died June 1, 1811, aged 22. By Eben- 
ezer Hill of Mason. 8vo. Boston, 1812. 

Sermon delivered at New Ipswich, at the Interment of William 
Kimball Batchelder, son of Josiah and Ruth B., who was killed by 
being thrown from a horse August 4, 1811, aged 13. By Ebene- 
zer Hill. 8vo. Boston, 1812. Two Hymns were composed on the 

occasion ; one by A G , the other by M. B. [Mrs. John M. 

Batchelder]. Many young persons afterwards ascribed their first 
serious reflections leading to their converson, to this sudden death. 
Sermon delivered at New Ipswich, Sept. 28, 1815, at the Fune- 
ral of Miss Clarissa Davis. By Ebenezer Hill. Also, Extracts 
from her Diary and Letters, by Richard Hall. 16mo. Boston, 1816. 



L 



220 EDUCATIONAL HISTORY. 

Sermon delivered at the Interment of the Kev. Jesse Appleton, 
D. D., President of Bowdoin College, who died Nov. 12, 1819, 
aged 47. By Benjamin Tappan. 8vo. Hallowell, 1819. 

Sermon at the Interment of Mrs. Anna Farrar Clary, at Dover, 
Feb. 18, 1825. By Federal Burt. 

Sermon, May 5, 1833, on the Death of Joseph Appleton Barrett, 
only son of Joseph Barrett, a Sophomore in College, April 20, 1833. 
By'Charles Walker. 8vo. New Ipswich, 1833. 

Sermon at the Installation of Rev. I. R. Barbour, as pastor of the 
Congregational Church in New Ipswich, March 8, 1825. By Rev. 
Warren Fay. 8vo. Boston, 1826. 

Discourse occasioned by the Centennial Anniversary of Hon. 
Timothy Farrar, LL. D., delivered at Mollis, July 11, 1847. By 
Timothy Farrar Clary. 8vo. Andover, 1847. 

Sketch of New Ipswich, N. H., Civil, Literary and Ecclesiasti- 
cal, By Charles Walker, A. M., Pastor of the Congregational 
Church, 1835. [In Collections of the New Hampshire Historical 
Society, v. 155.] 

Address before the Bethel Lodge. By Nathaniel D. Gould. 

The New Year's Gift, or Naughty Folks Reformed. By His 
Honor Isaac Iambic, Commander in Chief of the Poetic Forces in 
New Ipswich. 12mo. Jan. 1, 1802. [A Satirical Poem, by one of 
the Citizens.] 

Two or three Newspapers have been published in town ; each of 
which had a temporary success. The first was entitled the " New 
Ipswich Register," in 1833, edited by Mark Miller. Another, in 
1836, entitled " The News Gatherer," published by King & Hewes, 
and edited by Hewes. The Farmer's Cabinet, at Amherst, was 
also originally established by Cushing & Preston, — Samuel Pres- 
ton of New Ipswich. After a few years he withdrew, and removed 
to the West and established another newspaper. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
TEADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

clothier's works; linseed oil works; oatmeal; malt; earth- 
en WARE ; potasheries; glass ; cotton and woollen manu- 
factures ; stores and taverns ; artisans ; statistics for 

MDCCCLI. 

Manufacturing has always been a favorite pursuit with the 
people of this town, and has often been followed with perse- 
verance worthy of better success. It is believed that in some 
branches which have grown to be of importance, they may 
claim to be among the pioneers. The establishment of Saw 
and Grist Mills has already been noticed in the former part of 
the volume. The next in order of time was the erection of a 
Clothier's Works and Fulling Mill ; this was erected about 
1776, on the site of the present Mountain Mills, by John War- 
ner. He employed Nathaniel Prentice, who had been enga- 
ged in the same business at Westford ; and in the course of a 
year, Prentice purchased a part of the establishment, and it 
was carried on under the firm of Warner «fc Prentice. After 
a few years, Mr. Prentice became the sole proprietor, and car- 
ried on the business until about 1800, when he disposed of the 
concern to Ephraim Hartwell, who erected some additional 
buildings, and turned it into an establishment for making 
Linseed oil ; large quantities of flax being then raised in town, 
(for almost every family made their own linen,) there was no 
difficulty in obtaining the seed in any quantity. Linseed oil 
was also made by Eleazer Cummings, at his mills, at an early 
date. 

Very soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Mr. 
Cummings also manufactured at his mill a quantity of Oat- 
meal, for the supply of the apothecaries of Boston, who had 



222 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

generally imported the article. The secret of preparing and 
hulling the oats for the purpose was said to have been brought 
from Scotland by James Barr, and was not communicated to 
any other parties. 

Mr. Cummings also had an establishment for Malting, 
which was conducted by Mr. Barr. There was a Malt-house 
on the old road along the flat Pasture, west of the burying- 
ground ; and this road was designated on the Records as the 
"Malt-house road." It has not been ascertained by whom it 
was carried on. Malt was also made at Farrar's mills, by 
Peter Warren, and continued as lately as 1812. 

Stone and brown earthen ware, such as Jugs, Milk-pans, 
and Bowls, was manufactured on the Kidder farm as early as 
1792. Isaiah and Josiah Kidder seem to have managed the 
establishment. 

There were three or four establishments for the manufac- 
ture of Pot and Pearl Ashes before the beginning of the present 
century. The first of which we have any knowledge was 
that of Josiah Fletcher, in the Bake-house village, in 1795. 
Another, near where the Bank building now stands, was own- 
ed by David Hills. One by Charles Barrett, in the rear of 
his house; and another by Ephraim Hartwell. Another, at 
the south part of the town, was carried on by Zechariah 
Parker. 

But the first combined effort was for the manufacture of 
Glass. During the Revolution, the article of window glass 
became so scarce, that the people of Groton had petitioned the 
General Court to loan them some out of the public stock, stat- 
ing that they could not purchase any for the repairing of their 
meeting-house, on any terms whatever. 

About this time Robert Hewes came here, from Boston, 
where he had been a soap and tallow chandler, but was forced 
to remove on account of the depression of business consequent 
on the war. He was a man of some talents and good address, 
and professsed to have a knowledge of Glass making. He 
had with him some Germans who had worked at the business 
in Europe. With the assistance of some of our most enter- 
prising people, he commenced the undertaking, on the north 
side of the Kidder Mountain, a short distance over the town 



GLASS HOUSE. 223 

line, in Temple. The establishment was on a very small 
scale ; and, althongh he made some samples of glass, he prac- 
tically etfected nothing, and after a while concluded to leave 
town. But some of the most prominent men became interest- 
ed in the matter, and a meeting was called to investigate the 
thing ; when it was agreed to form a company, (or society, as 
it was then called,) to enable him to erect more extensive 
works, and to extend the business, and make every thing that 
was wanted in that line. 

Among the leaders in the enterprise were Dea. Isaac Apple- 
ton, Charles Barrett, Judge Champney, Reuben Kidder, and 
Judge Farrar. A large building was soon erected, and exten- 
sive furnaces were commenced. The heavy fire-stones, as 
well as the clay, had to be transported from Boston, over bad 
roads, a journey that then took a full week to accomplish with 
a loaded team. Much energy was displayed by those inter- 
ested, and it was regarded as a great affair. A large number 
of persons were employed in cutting and hauling the timber 
and fuel, and the various labors consequent to such an estab- 
lishment. People came from far and near to see, for the first 
time, the making of glass ; and for a year or so, till Peace was 
declared, the project seemed to be in a flourishing way. A 
lottery was arranged for its benefit, and the tickets prepared, 
but it is believed were never disposed of. As the thing was 
so new, much time and money was spent in trying to make 
tumblers, window glass, and other articles then much wanted, 
but with little success ; and it is said that they never made any 
thing but junk bottles. Soon after Peace took place, the coun- 
try was flooded with every article of European manufacture at 
much lower prices than ever before, and Mr. Hewes was com- 
pelled to stop. He found himself very much indebted to the 
people he had employed, as well as to those who had furnish- 
ed him with funds, as he seems to have been the real proprie- 
tor from first to last. He left town rather suddenly for Bos- 
ton, which gave rise to the story that he had been bought off" 
by a rival establishment there ; but this was an error, as he 
resumed his old trade, and paid ofl" many of his debts here, in 
small boxes of shaving soap. 

He was a man of a sanguine temperament ; and a few years 



224 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

after, again commenced the manufacture of glass in Boston, 
and received from the Legislature an exclusive grant to man- 
ufacture it throughout the State. His works were located in 
Essex street, opposite to Kingston street, and were supposed 
to have been quite profitable. 

The following sketch of the cotton and woollen manufac- 
tures has been furnished by Samuel Batchelder, Esq., who 
has been engaged in manufactures probably as long as almost 
any person now living ; and is familiar with their rise and 
progress. We insert it entire. 

" In the year 1803, preparations were made for building a 
Cotton Factory in New Ipswich, which was put in operation 
December 15, 1804, being the first cotton factory built in the 
State of New Hampshire. From the time of the introduction 
of the Arkwright machinery by Samuel Slater, Avhich was put 
in operation at Providence, on the Pawtucket Falls, in 1790, 
the business had been confined to that first mill until 1798, 
when Slater, in connection with some other persons, built a 
second mill at Cumberland ; and these two mills for some 
time had a monopoly of the business. But after a few years, 
the men employed in these mills thought themselves suffi- 
ciently acquainted with the construction of the machinery to 
set up for themselves. Among these Charles Robbins came to 
New Ipswich in 1803, and made proposals to other parties to 
unite with him in building a mill. A location was fixed upon 
on the lower part of the site of the present mill, which was 
occupied at that time by an oil mill, a fulling mill, and other 
Avorks, belonging to Charles Barrett, Ephraim Hartwell and 
Nathaniel Prentice. An Association was formed, in which 
Charles Barrett and Benjamin Champncy were at first inter- 
ested with Robbins. The latter was to receive for his services 
and skill ^2.75 per day, and the others to furnish the means 
for conducting the business. The mill went into operation in 
December 1804, and contained 500 spindles. Four and a half 
pounds of yarn were spun on the first day, which was sold to 
Charles Robbins for ^3.42. June 11, 1805, the Legislature of 
New Hampshire, on the petition of Charles Barrett and odiers, 
passed an "Act to encourage the manufacture of Cotton Yarn 



FIRST COTTON FACTORIES. 225 

in the town of New Ipswich in this State." Tliis act granted 
an exemption from taxes for five years. 

In 1807, a second factory was commenced by Daniel 
Brooks and some of the workmen who had been engaged 
in building the first. This was situated a little below, on the 
same stream, and was put in operation in 1808, previous to 
which time Samuel Batchelder had purchased an interest 
in the property. December 9, 1808, on the petition of Seth 
Nason, Jesse Holton and Samuel Batchelder, was passed "An 
actto encourage the manufacture of Cotton Yarn." This act 
granted an exemption from taxes for five years, on the build- 
ings, machinery and stock employed in the business, not ex- 
ceeding the sum of twenty thousand dollars. These two mills 
were both in operation some time before any other machinery 
was built in the State for the manufacture of cotton yarn,* 
and both mills contained less than one thousand spindles. 
These were the days of small things^ in some respects, com- 
pared with the present. The quantity of cotton spun in the 
first mill, from April 7, 1810 to June 1, 1811, was 18,196 lbs., 
or a little more than 300 pounds per week. The average cost 
was 26 cents per pound ; the product was 13,647 pounds of 
yarn. The yarn No. 12 was then sold for 84 cents per poimd. 
All the cotton used in the factories at that time, or cotton icool, 
as it was then denominated, had to be picked by hand, at a 
cost of four to five cents per pound ; for which purpose it was 
delivered at the mill in bags of one hundred pounds or more, 
and carried frequently some miles on horseback, to be picked 
by families in distant parts of the town, or the neighboring 
towns. This occasioned great delay and inconvenience ; to 
obviate which, an Englishman, by the name of Charles 



* It has sometimes been said, that the first Cotton Factory in the State was 
built at Exeter; but this is a mistake, as some of the parties concerned in building 
the first cotton factory at Exeter, visited New Ipswich after the second mill was 
built there, in order to obtain information in relation to the business they were 
about commencing. The early factory alluded to, at Exeter, was not a cotton 
factory, but was built for the manufacture of sail duck. The Legislature of 
New Hampshire, in 1789, passed a law to encourage the manufacture of " Sail 
Cloth or Duck," granting an exemption from taxes for ten years, an abatement 
of the poll tax for seven years to such as should be employed in the business, and 
a bounty of fifty pounds for the first establishment created for the purpose. This 
was the origin of what has been called the old factory at Exeter. 

29 



226 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

Hughes, in 1812 built a picking machine, which was put in 
operation at the first factory, and was among the first experi- 
ments for picking cotton by machinery in this country. 

In 1806, Isaiali Kidder purchased the interest of Charles Bar- 
rett in the first mill for $2,600, and Rogers Chandler also pur- 
chased the interest of Charles Robbins,* so that the owners then 
were Isaiah Kidder, Benja. Champney and Rogers Chandler. 
In 1810, Mr. Samuel Appleton, of Boston, who always felt a 
great interest in the prosperity of his native town, also became 
an owner. 

About the year 1810, Josiah Davis, Joel Davis and Peter 
Felt converted the old Iron Works, on the north branch of the 
Souhegan, into a Cotton Factory, which continued in opera- 
tion until about 1826. It is now occupied more successfully 
as a Bedstead Manufactory by William Walker. 

About the same time the old Saw and Grist Mill, a little 
below, near Col. Gibson's residence, built about ISOO by Jere- 
miah Prichard, and carried on by his brother Benjamin, and 
afterwards by Salathiel Manning, was purchased by Eleazer 
Rhoades and Loammi Chamberlain. They put Cotton Ma- 
chinery in it, and carried it on eight or ten years. 

Soon after this time, Isaiah Kidder formed a partnership 
with Ebenezer Stowell, who had considerable experience in 
various branches of manufacture, which he had been concern- 
ed in carrying on at or near Worcester, Mass. They com- 
menced the business of manufacturing Velvets, Checks, Tick- 
ings, Table and Bed Covers, and a variety of cotton fabrics, 
which was continued until the death of Mr. Kidder, April 28, 
1811. As he was the active and enterprising manager of the 

* Mr. Robbiiis left town in 1807, and was employed to superintend the mak- 
ing of the patterns and machinery, and put in operation the cotton factory then 
being built at Fitchburg. Mr. R. was said to be in the habit of drinking a quart 
of brandy daily, and was not usually of a very atniable temper. Being puffed 
up by being the possessor of important secrets, he assumed an overbearing de- 
meanor which was not very pleasing to his employers. As the proprietors' funds 
soon gave out, all persons employed had to take shares in the concern ; but Rob- 
bins, thinking they could not proceed without him, declined to do so. But he 
soon found that he had over-estimated his importance, as a very enterprising 
young workman, by climbing the lightning-rod, reached the room where the chest 
containing his patterns was deposited, by which he was soon capable of superin- 
tending the work, and Mr. Robbins was summarily dismissed. What became of 
him afterwards is not known. Soon after its completion a Mr. Field, who had 
learned the business in this town, was employed to superintend this factory. 



COTTON GOODS. 227 

whole concern, this proved a heavy blow, both to the Cotton 
Factory, in which he was interested, and to the new under- 
taking of weaving cotton goods. But though this business 
did not prove successful or profitable, and was not long con- 
tinued, the commencement of it brought together a number of 
emigrants from Scotland, Yorkshire, and other places, who 
were acquainted with weaving, dyeing and other manufactur- 
ing processes, and who afterwards found employment by other 
parties ; so that at the commencement of the war of 1812, a 
sort of hand-loom manufacture was carried on of Ginghams, 
Tickings, Shirtings and other articles to a considerable extent, 
principally by Samuel Batchelder, who contracted, for some 
years, for all the yarn produced in the mill in which he was 
interested, and had it woven on his own account; which busi- 
ness he continued until his removal to Lowell, and his con- 
nection with the Hamilton Manufacturing Company on its 
establishment there in 1825. 

Until about the year 1812, there were no Power-looms in 
operation in this country, and most of the yarn spun in the 
factories here was used in various household manufactures by 
hand-looms, which were then a necessary appendage to 
almost every family ; and all mothers and daughters were 
skilled in using them ; and, except in a few instances, like 
that above-mentioned, very little cloth of any kind was man- 
ufactured for sale. So entirely was our supply of cotton 
goods, at that time imported from Great Britain, and such was 
the feeling respecting American goods, that few persons en- 
gaged in the Dry Goods business in Boston could be prevailed 
upon to offer an article of American manufacture for sale. 
The consequence was, that such goods as were made could 
only be disposed of by barter, or by consigning them for sale at 
retail in Boston, or to traders in the country. Notwithstand- 
ing these embarrassments, a considerable business was done 
for several years at hand-loom weaving in New Ipswich, on 
account of the manufacturing skill which had been introduced 
there, affording employment to many of the inhabitants, and 
contributing very materially to the prosperity of the place. 
This was continued until it was superseded by the introduc- 
tion of the power-loom; and in the mean time establishments 



228 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

were commenced for the sale of American goods in Boston, 
and such commission houses found an increasing and prosper- 
ous business.* 

After the successful introduction of the Power-loom at Wal- 
tham, Samuel Appleton, Benjamin Champney, Silas Bullard 
and Charles Barrett, Jr., and others, were incorporated as the 
" New Ipswich Water-loom Factory," in 1820, and proceeded 
to build a new mill, occupying the site of the old mill, then 
owned by them, and the old fulling-mill above it. This went 
into operation in 1821, for the manufacture of Sheetings 
by power-looms, and was continued successfully for several 
years. On the death of Charles Barrett, it was sold at auc- 
tion, and purchased by a company in Boston. It is now con- 
ducted, under the name of the " Mountain Mill," by Hiram 
Smith, as agent, and manufactures Jeans and Flannels. 

About 1823, a new mill was also commenced on the site of 
the second factory, by Samuel Batchelder and Eleazer Brown, 
who had purchased the interest of Mr. Holton, about 1818, 
for the manufacture of Tickings by power-looms. This went 
into operation in 1825, and these two establishments have 
been continued, with various success and some interruptions, 
according to the chances and discouragements of the times, 
and with several changes in the ownership, up to the present 
time. 

About the year 1825, two other Cotton mills were put in 
operation on the same stream, and principally by the same 
owners; one of which, " the Souhegan," has been since burnt 
down and rebuilt, under the name of the " Columbian Facto- 
ry, No. 2;" the other by Eleazer Brown, on the site of the 
Sanderson Factory ; and both have participated in the prosper- 
ity and adversity of others engaged in this branch of business. 

On account of the rapid increase of the Cotton manufacture 
in this country, since these small beginnings in 1803, and the 
extent and importance of the business at present in this State, 
it has not been deemed improper to give the foregoing minute 
detail of particulars respecting the commencement of the busi- 
ness at New Ipswich. 

* Among tl)e very first who engaged in this branch of business vvas Gilman 
Pricliard, a native of New Ipswich, 



WOOL CARDING AND BLUE DYEING. 229 

In connection with the cotton mannfacture, the name of 
James Sanderson onght not to be omitted, on account of the 
influence which his skill in bhie-dyeing had, in some branches 
of the cotton business estabhshed at a later period. He came 
to New Ipswich in 1801, and put in operation a carding ma- 
chine for carding wool. Those who have any recollection of 
cloths earlier than this date, will remember that the woollen 
cloth of household manufacture which constituted the princi- 
pal clothing of people in the country, was very coarse and 
imperfectly made. The greatest defect arose from carding by 
hand and want of proper care in sorting the wool, for which 
reason different parts of the cloth would shrink unevenly in 
the fulling and dressing. This was obviated by machine 
carding, which mixed and carded the wool so thoroughly and 
equally that the different parts of the cloth would receive a 
uniform finish. For this reason the introduction of carding 
machines by Mr. Sanderson was an important era in house- 
hold manufactures ; and wool was brought to be carded from 
the neighboring towns for twelve or fifteen miles, as this was 
the first carding machine introduced in this part of the coun- 
try. Another very important facility introduced by Mr. S. 
was the spring shuttle in place of the hand shuttle. 

Mr. Sanderson was from a manufacturing district in Scot- 
land, and had also the skill, then almost unknown in this 
country, of dyeing indigo blue by the same process now 
practiced in our best manufacturing establishments. Before 
this time, the good housewife, in providing clothing for her 
family, had some experience of the difficulty and delay of 
several weeks in producing at last a very ordinary color; 
so that she had a proper appreciation of the mystery of blue 
dying ; and when she was able to carry her yarn to the dye- 
house in the morning, for which purpose she sometimes trav- 
elled several miles, and to have it dyed a beautiful and per- 
manent color, and ready to have it carried home at night, it 
was a matter of no inconsiderable wonder. The skill of Mr. 
Sanderson proved, afterwards very important, in giving a good 
and permanent color to the Tickings, Checks and other goods 
which, in the progress of the cotton manufacture, were after- 
wards made here; and he was subsequently employed at 



230 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

Lowell in skein-dyeing soon after the commencement of bnsi- 
ness by the Hamilton Manufacturing Company. He also 
carried on the manufacture of woollens to a considerable ex- 
tent in 1812-14, and in 1819, added [cotton machinery also. 
His factory was burnt in 1819, whereby he lost nearly every 
thing. It was rebuilt and again burnt." * 

Mr. John Everett commenced the manufacture of woollens 
about 1810. He erected a mill on the north branch of the 
Souhegan, on the south road near Dr. Gibson's. His first 
business was the fulling and dressing of woollen cloth that 
had been spun and woven in families : but in 1815 he began 
the manufacture of satinets. The first weaver in his employ 
was Miss Reed, afterwards Mrs. Tho. Sanderson. She was paid 
twelve cents per yard. The bobbins were all wound by hand, 
on a one-spindle quill-wheel, the thread passing between the 
thumb and fingers. The satinet warp was sized in a common 
wooden tub, and drawn through the nose of a broken jug, in 
order to squeeze out the sizeing. About 1820 the business 
was increased by I he introduction of looms for the making of 
broadcloths, kerseymeres and satinets. This was continued 
on quite an extensive scale for those times. " The cloth was 
woven by main strength, and was as firm as the hills ; it was 
beat up so hard that it was almost milled in the loom." The 
wool was mostly purchased in Boston, and the cloth sold 
there. The woollen manufacture in New England has seen 
many reverses ; and in 1826 this establishment was compelled 
to stop. The employees mostly emigrated to Lowell and other 



* It appears from a deposition of the wife of Sanderson, taken in 1823, for the 
purpose of establishing her claim to a legacy of about three hundred pounds, left 
her by an uncle who died in London, that Sanderson came to this country in 
1794, and that she came three years later ; and that they took up their residence 
in New Ipswich in 1801. She testifies that she was the daughter of John Thor- 
burn and Mary Thorburn, formerly Mary Wihon, and sister of Thomas Wil- 
son, late of Old Bond Street, London ; that she was married to James Siinderson 
at Gallashiels ; that one of her children was born at Melrose ; that she resided 
for a time at West Gordon, and near A'f/so. The names of these places seem 
now suggestive of poetical associations; and the persons named bring to mind 
emigrants from Scotland to this country, who have figured in other than manu- 
facturing vocations. But tliis was before the genious of Scott had thrown a charm 
over every fimiiiar name and location in his vicinity ; and those names, at that 
time, belonged truly to the work-day world of plain prose. 



SAW AND GRIST MILLS. 231 

large manufacturing towns, where their experience and skill 
have been duly appreciated. In one large factory the princi- 
pal Overseer and three of his subordinates all learned their 
trade in Everett's Mills. 

Mr. Everett had been previously connected with Major King 
and James Taft, in commencing the woollen works at Mason 
Village. 

MILLS. 

The first Mills built by the Massachusetts Proprietors, and 
by John Chandler, have been already described. 

Thomas Adams' Sawmill is spoken of in the Records of 
1760; but its location is not precisely known. It is presumed 
to have been identical with the one next mentioned. Tradi- 
tion says that the crank was made of a crooked tree. 

Zechariah Adams, with the assistance of John Breed, built 
the Mills in the IMill village. They are alluded to in the 
Records of 1764. They were accidentally burnt in 1780, and 
rebuilt by Samuel Cummin gs. They then stood directly be- 
low the dam. They were afterwards owned by Ebenezer 
Fletcher, who rebuilt them on their present site. He sold 
them to his son, Roby Fletcher, about 1826. In 1827 they 
were set on fire by friction and burned ; loss ^2.500. They 
were rebuilt by Shattuck & Knowlton, and again burnt in 
1836. Again they were rebuilt, and are now owned by Jonas 
Nutting and Stephen Sylvester, who, in addition to Sawing 
and Grinding, carry on an extensive business in the manufac- 
ture of Chairs. 

Farrar's Mills, on the Mill Brook, at what has more recent- 
ly been called the Starch Factory, were erected about the year 
1790. A Bolting Machine for wheat flour, the first in town, 
was introduced in 1793, previous to which, the little flour that 
was used was sifted by hand sieves. A single run of mill- 
stones was all the machinery they contained, until about the 
year 1816, when an extension was made and a Carding Ma- 
chine added. They have been carried on by Peter Warren, 
Isaac Preston, Stephen Farrar, Arthur Dennis and others, and 
continued in operation till 182.5. The mill privilege is now 
owned by Harvey Batchelder. 

The Mills in Mason Village were erected by Charles and 



232 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

Thomas Barrett about 1766w , and were called '' Barrett's 
Mills." They were sold to Amos Dakm 1768. 

A small Sawmill was built on the stream issuing from 
Pratt's Pond, on the Hildreth estate. Another was built by- 
Mr. Lock on the Adams Brook where it crosses the road going 
to the Poor-house. There are also two Sawmills on the 
stream west of the mountains. 

The mill built by Capt. Pritchard and improved by Benja- 
min Prichard and Salathiel Manning, and afterwards convert- 
ed into the Rhodes Factory, subsequently came into the hands 
of Mr. Green, who established a manufactory of Potato Starch. 
It is now owned by Col. George Gibson, and used for making 
carriages and various purposes. 

Another Starch mill, on a larger scale, was put in operation 
just above Farrar's mill, and was carried on for two or three 
years, but proved a ruinous concern. 

TRADERS, 

The first trader in town was Jonathan Dix, who settled in 
176 1 on the Village flat where Rev. Mr. Lee's house now is, 
and remained till 1771. As early as 1768, Robert Harris 
built the house occupied by the late Dr. Barr, and kept a 
stock of goods. He was succeeded by Josiah Rogers, who is 
mentioned as '' innholder" in 1772. About 1791 he sold out 
to Ephraim Hartwell, who kept a stock of goods till his death 
in 1816. His store stood on the west side of the house yard, 
facing eastward. It has been removed, and is the same now 
used by Mr, Hassall for a wheelwright's shop, 

David Hills purchased the estate of Joseph Bates about 
1771, and opened a store in the house. When the house now 
occupied by John T. Stevens was built, a room at the west 
side was used as his store. When the turnpike was opened, 
he built a store on the spot now occupied by the house of 
Joseph Barrett, Esq., which was soon given up to his son, 
John F. Hills, who for a short time (1809) was in company 
with Daniel Wheeler. This building was removed, and oc- 
cupied after the death of Mr. Hills by Sampson Fletcher, 
who was his clerk, and succeeded to his business. 

Some others kept goods for sale previous to the Revolution. 



TRADERS. 233 

and among them was Jonathan Davis, at the house recently- 
occupied by his son, Solomon Davis. 

Samuel Appleton opened a store at the corner, at the foot of 
the Burying-ground hill, in 1792. About two years after- 
wards he entered into partnership with Charles Barrett, and 
continued until 1798, when he removed to Boston. The busi- 
ness was then conducted under the firm of Charles «fc George 
Barrett, having a branch also in Keene, conducted by Roger 
Chandler, and one in Boston. They finally removed to Bos- 
ton about 1804. Their subsequent prosperous career will be 
noticed elsewhere. 

Barrett & Chandler built a store in 1806 on the turnpike, 
where the brick house at the corner of the road to Mason and 
Temple stands. 

Samuel Batchelder built a store in the Bakehouse village 
about 1800, which was managed by his sons, Samuel and 
Peter. Samuel removed to the store built by Barrett & Chand- 
ler about 1810, which was burnt in 1812. He then built the 
brick store now occupied by E. M. Isaacs, Esq., where he 
traded till his removal to Lowell in 1825. He was succeeded 
by Eaton & Farrar, O. P. Eaton, G. M. Champney & Co., 
Henry Isaacs, E. M. Isaacs. 

Isaiah Kidder erected a store opposite to that of Barrett &, 
Chandler, about 1808, and occupied it till his death. It is the 
same building now and for many years used as a tavern. 

William Lock opened a store on the south side of the stream 
in Mill village (now called Smith village), about 1803, and 
traded there a few years. He afterwards erected the building 
in front of the tanyard, and kept store there for a short time 
also. 

The store at the corner of the road to Mason, on the turn- 
pike, has been occupied by Heywood & Wood, Heywood & 
Davis, C. B. Davis, and Luke Cram. 

Peter Felt built a store in Mill village about 1810, and car- 
ried on the business there until his removal about 1825. Col. 
Jeremiah Smith has since traded in that village in a house 
nearer the stream, on the opposite side of the road, built by 
Ebenezer Fletcher. 

About the year 1816 the old store of Appleton and Barrett 
30 



234 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

was reopened by Gould & Willey ; and under this firm, and 
those of Gould & Clark, Gould & Fox, and Timothy Fox, 
was carried on till about 1823. Fletcher (!fc Barrett, George 
Barrett, Henry Isaacs, James Spaulding, Shattuck & Mann, 
have since traded there. 

William W. Johnson has traded in the Bank village since 
about the year 1825 ; a part of the time in connection with 
Charles Barrett, Jr. and Col. J. P. Clark. 

Silas Foster, Stevens & Taft. and James Reed have traded 
at the High Bridge ; and Thomas Wilder in Swamp village. 

Taverns. — The public houses have been almost too numer- 
ous to mention, and very much too numerous for the good of 
the town. The first was opened by Benjamin Hoar, at his 
house near the river, on the " old countrey road." This was 
as early as 17.52, and it was kept for forty years or more. 

Joseph Kidder seems to have been " mine host " in the cen- 
tral village, and at his house Proprietors' meetings and other 
gatherings were held ; although we nowhere find him desig- 
nated as innholder. 

Col. Kidder, whose house was then on the great thorough- 
fare to the towns above, is denominated "innholder" as early 
as 1761 ; and Josiah Rogers, who lived on Dr. Barr's estate, 
in 1772. Robert Blood is also enumerated at the same date. 

Samuel Heywood afterwards purchased the Jo. Kidder es- 
tate, and built the large house now occupied by John Preston, 
Esq. for a public house, about the year 1783. His successors 
were Ebenezer Parker, Elijah Towne and John Champney. 

The Bakehouse establishment, so long occupied by Joseph 
Davis, was built for a store by Josiah Fletcher about the year 
1785, and enjoyed some little notoriety as a place of convivi- 
ality, as did all stores in those days; rum being dealt out 
freely, at little profit, as a lure to customers. 

On the site of the Rev. Mr. Lee's house formerly stood a 
one-story building of considerable extent, which was occupied 
as a store and tavern by Jonathan Dix, and afterwards as a 
tavern by Samuel Atherton, also by Isaac B . Farrar and Eli- 
jah Towne. 

Soon after the turnpike was constructed, four new taverns 



TAVERNS AND BANKS. 235 

were opened upon it. The first was Wheeler's tavern, at the 
eastern border of the town. The next was kept by Major 
Benjamin Adams, in the old parsonage house of Rev. Mr. Far- 
rar, now occupied by ]\Irs. Shattuck. It was a very reputable 
house for those times, and was seldom resorted to as a loung- 
ing-place, or defiled by drunkenness. The third was the 
Batchelder tavern, built by Samuel Batchelder, Sen., which 
for many years enjoyed the reputation of being the best house 
on the road ; and indeed it was probably unsurpassed any- 
where in the country. After his death it was kept by Peter 
Batchelder and Moody Adams, until it was finally closed. 
The fourth was the Merriam tavern, over the mountain. 
Mr. Merriam had previously kept a tavern a little way up 
the Rindge road, but built a new brick house on the turn- 
pike soon after it was opened, about half way between the 
Rindge and Peterborough roads. 

On the south road, the house of Samuel Whittemore, now 
owned by Amos Ramsdell, was enlarged by Silas Bigelow, and 
was known as the Bigelow tavern. 

Samuel Whittemore, Jr. also kept tavern for a time at the 
house opposite the road to the Holden farm. 

The Estabrook tavern, the estate once occupied by Col. 
Thomas Heald, was favorably known, during the first quarter 
of the present century, and was a favorite resting-place of 
drovers, as were also the two last-mentioned houses. 

The Stage tavern, in the Centre village, was opened about 
the year 1818, by Joseph Newell. Among his successors have 
been J. B. Holt, E. P. Tucker, E. L. Hammond, Henry Bates, 
A. L. Merriam, John Peabody, Oilman Brickett, William 
Mansur. 

A tavern was also kept for some years at the High Bridge, 
by Dinsmore, Henry Campbell, and William Mansur. 

Banks. — The "Manufacturers Bank" was chartered by the 
Legislature in 1820, with a capital of One Hundred Thousand 
Dollars ; but it did not go into operation till two or three years 
afterwards. It was located near the present Mountain Mills, 
in what has since been called the Bank Village. The first 
President was Charles Barrett, Esq., who contiiuied in ofiice 



236 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

till nearly the time of his death. Thomas B. Fearing was the 
first Cashier, and held the office for some two or three years ; 
he was succeeded by William Ainsworth, Esq., who had the 
chief management of the Institution till his death in 1S42. 
His fidelity and urbanity gave great satisfaction to all who 
had occasion to have dealings with the Institution. He was 
succeeded by Mr. George Barrett. In 1845, a new building 
was erected in the middle of the town, and the Bank removed 
there. Besides paying its semi-annual dividends, at the expi- 
ration of its charter there was said to have been a handsome 
surplus after paying out the capital to the stockholders — a 
pretty good evidence that it had been well managed. 

The " New Ipswich Bank " was chartered in 1848, and 
went into operation soon after. Its capital is f 100,000. 
Its officers are : J. M. Minot, President ; George Barrett, 
Cashier ; Directors — J. H. Melville, S. A. Elliot, J. Chandler, 
S. Gibson, S. Wheeler and J. W. Bliss. Its dividends have 
averaged seven per cent, annually. The number of stock- 
holders is one hundred and nineteen, about one quarter of 
whom reside in town. 

A Savings Bank was incorporated a few years since, and 
went into operation. It has been managed principally by 
John Preston, Esq. 

Printing. — About the year 1817, Salmon Wilder removed 
to this town from Leominster, with a Printing apparatus of 
the rudest kind even for those days. He did such jobs in the 
way of printing notices for Vendues, Strayed or Stolen, Farm 
for sale. Executor's Notices, &c., as were usually found posted 
in country taverns and stores. He also printed little Toy- 
books, illustrated with curious cuts executed on type metal in a 
very questionable style of art, such as is exhibited in the cuts 
to the old Catechism. Beyond the printing of Ebenezer 
P"'letcher's Narrative, or an occasional Address he did not as- 
pire. He executed all the printing demanded by the town 
and vicinity for many years. Since his time the printing bu- 
siness has been carried on by Mark Miller, King & Hewes. 

It is not probably known by many of the inhabitants how- 
ever, that a printing establishment once existed over the 



I 



PRINTERS. 237 

mountain, near the Rindge line, owned and conducted by- 
Simeon Ide. We have gathered some particulars of his life, 
which we should be glad to give more fully than we propose, 
as a specimen of the enterprize and perseverance of many New 
England youth in overcoming difficulties. He was appren- 
ticed to Farnsworth & Churchill, publishers of the "Vermont 
Republican," at Windsor, Having bought his time of his 
father, he found himself in possession of about $500, at the age 
of 22. With this he purchased of Munroe & Francis a small 
tv'o-piill Ramage press, and a font of bourgeois type which 
had already been pretty well worn on an edition of Shak- 
speare. This he placed in the blacksmith shop on his father's 
farm, and undertook to print an edition of the New Testament 
in duodecimo form. By the assistance of a sister about twelve 
years old, in setting type, it was accomplished in about six 
months. That this his first publication might be as free from 
errors as possible, he engaged the Rev. Dr. Pay son of Rindge 
to read the proof-sheets. As there was only type enough to 
set twelve pages at a time, he walked to his house, a distance 
of four miles, twice a week, to read proofs with him ; and to 
give greater currency to the edition, he prevailed on Dr. Payson 
to allow him to insert on the title-page " Revised and corrected 
by Rev. S. Payson, D. D." Some of the Doctor's friends 
having got the impression that he had been making a new 
translation of the Testament, it gave him no little uneasiness. 
To relieve him of this, Mr. Ide printed the words " First New 
Ipswich Edition," and pasted the strip over the obnoxious 
line. An edition of 5000 was worked off, and 1000 copies, in 
full binding, were sold to the New Hampshire Bible Society, 
for $280, which was less than cost, in order to raise money to 
purchase paper at Peterborough. The others were retailed at 
fifty cents a copy. 

Besides the Testament, Mr. Ide printed a Sermon, by Dr, 
Payson ; The Grave, a Poem, by Robert Blair ; the Life and 
Character of Benjamin Franklin, about fifty pages 32mo,, 
written by Mr, Ide himself, in his leisure hours, while an ap- 
prentice. 

In 1817 he removed from New Ipswich, and worked at 



238 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

Boston, Dedham and Windsor, and now resides and continnes 
his vocation at Claremont, N. H. 

Chairs. — Soon after the opening of the Turnpike, Peter 
Wilder located himself in the dense woods at the northwest 
corner of the town, a dismal region, long known under the 
name of " Tophet Swamp." Here he erected works for the 
manufacture of Chairs, which in the hands of his partner, 
Abijah Wetherbee, and his sons, J. P. and John B. Wilder, 
has been carried on industriously and extensively for about 
forty years. It was one of the earliest establishments of the 
kind ; and most of the pine-seated, curved-back, painted and 
ornamented chairs in the region originated here, and finally 
superseded the old square built, flag-bottomed pattern. That 
Yankee luxury the rocking-chair, was largely supplied from 
this establishment The present " Swamp Village," or 
" Wilder' s Village," now consisting of five or six houses, 
several shops, and a sawmill just over the Sharon line, has 
resulted. 

There are now one or two other shops for the same purpose 
in town. 

Scythe Manufactory. — Before the year 1800, John Putnam, 
under the patronage of Ephraim Hartwell, commenced the 
manufacture of Scythes. He first had a trip-hammer at the 
Mill village ; but subsequently erected the works lower down 
the stream, — afterwards the Davis Cotton Factory. The 
works were afterwards carried on by Oliver Ormsbee and 
John Farwell, until Mr. Farwell removed to Fitchburgh, 
where he has since continued the business on a much larger 
scale. The scythes of Ormsbee & Farwell were for many 
years in great demand, far and near. 

A building on the Sawmill Brook, near the old Adams es- 
tate, now used for preparing match-wood and for other pur- 
poses, and previously for a Bleachery and for Stove Castings, 
has always gone by the name of " The Forge ;" but for what 
purpose it was originally intended we have not been able to 
learn. 



ARTISANS. 239 

The following is a list of the various Artisans who have 
lived ill town, as far as recollected, enumerated nearly in the 
order of time. 

Carpenters. — Jonas Woolson, Amos Prichard, Daniel Fos- 
ter, John Gould, Benjamin Prichard, John Prichard, Ebene- 
zer Fletcher (millwright), Samuel Holden, John Butman, 
Joseph Knowlton, Leonard Brooks, Cummings Fletcher, 
Charles Stearns, Oilman Ames, Willard Jefts. They were 
accustomed to execute all kinds of wood- work. 

Joiners. — Joseph Bacheller, who occupied the first school- 
house; northwest of the old meeting-house ; Isaac Appleton, in 
Mill village ; Martin Haven, who first worked in a part of the 
house now occupied by John Preston, Esq., about 1800, and 
afterwards built the shop near the burying-ground, now occu- 
pied as a dwelling-house by Mrs. Chickering ; he was suc- 
ceeded by Peter Cloyes and John Gould, Jr. ; John M. Bach- 
eller. 

Blacksmiths. — Benjamin Hoar, at the bridge over the river; 
Ebenezer Brown, near the northeast school-house ; Edmund 
Briant, near Col. Kidder's, and afterwards Mill village; John 
Dutton, at the crotch of the roads above the Factories ; Josiah 
Bacheller & Son, opposite Peter Clark ; Abner Chickering, at 
his farm; Enos Knight and Elijah Knight, on Knight's Hill; 
Carey, on the Rindge line ; Joseph Briant, Ephraim Fair- 
banks, in Bakehouse village ; Oliver Whitcomb, at the brook 
near Mrs. Everett; Samuel Dutton, near the meeting-house; 
Abel Gardner, at the old Factory; Isaiah Williams, Charles 

Bateman and John T. Stevens, near Kidder's Brook ; ■ 

Hale, Charles Whitmarsh, Lewis Eppes, Russell Farwell, 

Curtis Shedd, Hildreth, in Mill village ; Lysander E. 

Russell, near Estabrook's tavern; Thomas Wesson, near the 
Centre tavern. 

Shoebiakers. — Jonathan Kimball, Phinehas Pratt, Josiah 
Obear, Abijah Smith, Elijah Towne, Israel Cheever, William 
Dickson, Benjamin Barrett, Benjamin A. Billings, Ralph Ro- 
by, William Cheever, Abel Shattuck, Isaiah Cragin, William 
Searle, Franklin Griswold, Wilson. 

Hatters. — Daniel Swain, Richard H. Jones, Elijah Smith, 



240 TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 

Seth King, Stephen F. Preston, Caleb Farrar, Samuel Parker, 
James Tolman, Jonathan Webster, Charles King. 

Tailors. — Joseph Baker, Ezra Kimball, Samuel Porter, Jo- 
siah Webber. Most of the Tailoring has been done by fe- 
males. 

Tanners. — Jeremiah Prichard constructed the yard below 
the old burial-ground about 17&7; Isaac Spaulding, James 
Taft, Jeremiah Prichard, Jr., John Tolman, Charles Adams, 

Charles Shedd, Amos Pierce, Lawrence, Bell, have 

all successively occupied the same premises ; Stedman Hough- 
ton, near the meetinghouse, opposite the new burying-ground. 

The slaughter-house was early connected with the yard ; 
and the butchering business has usually been carried on by 
those who have improved the tanyard. 

Saddlers. — John Crosby, as early as 1793 ; Isaac Stone, 
Silas Cragin, William Farwell, Charles Hubbard, Newton 
Willey, Levi Cochran, all in shops near the Barrett store ; 
Levi Hodge, C. L. Weston, at the turnpike. 

Bakers. — Samuel Batchelder removed from Jaffrey in 1785, 
and built the house now occupied by Benjamin Davis, as a 
bakery. This he carried on about fifteen years. Joseph Da- 
vis soon after converted the store of Josiah Fletcher into a 
bake-house, and carried on the business with much energy 
and success. For the first quarter of the century he supplied 
the whole region, for twenty miles, with Crackers and Gin- 
gerbread. Thayer & Wood again fitted up the old establish- 
ment of Samuel Batchelder, about twenty-five years since, 
and occupied it for a few years, when they removed to the 
Centre village, on the turnpike. N. Smith, N. H. May and 
Albert Thayer have succeed ^d them. 

Masons and Painters. — Until quite recently, there were no 
professed masons in town, with the exception of Francis Shat- 
tuck and his father; and the inhabitants were dependent 
chiefly on the Wellingtons of Ashby for this indispensable 
service. 

The same may be said of Painters, who, it is too true, found 
little occupation anywhere in the country, until the last thirty 
years. Such buildings as were painted, were mostly covered 



I 



STATISTICS. 241 

by unskilful hands with a coating of oil and Spanish-brown, 
mixed with a little red lead. 

Wheelwrights. — James Brickett, about 1820 ; Cummings 
Fletcher, Roby Fletcher, William Hassall, Hiram Nutting, 
Seth Stratton. 

Tinmen. — About 1816 to IS, Joseph Pressey occupied the 
shop in front of the tanyard, as a tinman. Joseph Buckman 
next manufactured tin ware to a considerable extent, at the 
old Farrar tavern. Since then, this business has been carried 
on in town very extensively by Nathan and George Sanders, 
Boynton & Stark, and others. 

Watchmakers and Jewellers. — Richard Boyter, David 
French, Martin Ames. 



STATISTICS OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURES, AUGUST, IS.'JO. 

PREPARED BY GEORGE M. CHAMPNEY. 

Columbian Factory, No. 2. {late Souhegan.^ 

Has in operation 3000 spindles, 30 carding machines, 83 
looms. 

Manufactures 1,243,000 yards Tickings, Stripes and De- 
nims per annum. 

Use 468,000 lbs. of Cotton ; 828 bbls. Flour for dressing ; 
400 cords Wood, in dyeing, calendering, &c. 

Employs 120 operatives, male and female. 

Mountain Mill, {late Waterloom.') 
Has in operation 2176 spindles and 54 looms. 
Manufacture 572,761 yards brown Drills per annum. 
Use 166,692 lbs. Cotton " 

Employs 77 operatives, male and female. 

Brown's Mills, erected in 1822. 
Have in operation 1756 spindles and 54 looms. 
Manufacture 350,000 to 400,000 yards Ticking and Denims 
per annum. 

Use 150,000 lbs. Cotton per annum. 
Employs 75 operatives, male and female. 
31 



243 



TRADE AND MANUFACTURES. 



S. Thayer & Co. Cigar Manufactory. 
Make 2,791,500 Cigars per annum. 
Use 279,150 lbs. Tobacco. 
Employ about 50 hands. 



Cigar Factory. 

Use 150,000 lbs. Tobacco. 



Moses Brickett. 
Make 1,500,000 per annum. 
Employs 40 hands. 

Manufactures also 50 barrels Ink per annum, and a large 
amount of Japan and Paste Blackmg, Essences, &c., &c. 

S. Thayer & Co. Match Factory. 

Make 4,507,200 Matches, or 31,300 gross per annum. 

Employ 12 hands. 

They also make and bottle 100 bbls. Ink ; 30 bbls. Japan 
Blacking ; and great quantities of Paste Blacking, Essences, 
Oils, &c., &c. 

Other Manufactories. 

Saddle and Harness Maker. 

Watchmaker and Jeweller. 

Blacksmiths. 

Tannery. 

Tailoring Establishments. 

Grist Mills. 

Builders and Housewrights. 

General Variety Stores. 

Restaurant. 



1 for making Cigar Boxes. 


1 


1 " Match Wood. 


1 


2 " Chairs. 


5 


2 " Carriages. 


1 


1 " Bedsteads. 


3 


1 " Hats. 


2 


2 Tin Ware Manufactories. 


5 


1 Bakery. 


4 


1 Wheelwright. 


1 



CHAPTER XIV, 



MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS, 



military affairs ; fires ; casualties ; roads and bridges ; 
carriages; temperance reform; slavery ; vital statistics; 
burials and burying-ground ; music ; population; occupancy 

OF farms; town officers, ETC. 

Military Affairs. — It is impossible to give, at this time, 
a full account of the various Military companies, with their 
officers, that have, for the last century, existed in town. As 
there have been no Records preserved, the following state- 
ment is nearly all derived from tradition and memory. 

In former times, military offices were looked upon as high 
honors, and none but the most reliable and courageous were 
selected for them ; and a captain was held in higher distinc- 
tion than a General is at the present day. The dignity of 
even a corporal was such that he was usually addressed by his 
title through life. Training, in those days, meant something 
more than a mere holida^^-show. 

It is not known at what period the first company was or- 
ganized in town, but probably as early as 1755, as from that 
time till 1760 we had an Indian enemy on our very borders. 
It is supposed that Capt. Tucker was the first commander. 
This is mainly inferred from his having the title of captain, 
and his known martial ability and courage. It is known that 
there was an organized company here in 1760, under the com- 
mand of Capt. Reuben Kidder, of which Aaron Kidder was 
lieutenant ; and on the elevation of the former to the office of 
colonel, the latter was appointed captain of the company. He 
died suddenly, in 1769, and was probably succeeded by Capt. 
Benjamin Hoar. 



244 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

The venerable Isaac Appleton says, the first traming he 
ever witnessed was when he was about nine years old. that 
is, in 1771. "The following is a list of the officers, viz. Tho- 
mas Fletcher, captain ; Benjamin Knowlton, first lieutenant ; 
Isaac Appleton, his father, second lieutenant ; Thomas Heald, 
ensign; Sam'l Whittemore, clerk; Thomas [Francis 7J Fletch- 
er, Charles Barrett, Simeon Fletcher, Ezra Towne, sergeants ; 
Stephen Parker, Joseph Parker, Hezekiah Corey and Moses 
Tucker, Jr., corporals ; Thomas Farnsworth, drummer. The 
company was very large, containing not less than one hund- 
red. I heard the clerk call over their names, and five brothers 
answered to the name of Kinney." It will be seen that many 
of this list of officers afterwards commanded companies, and 
some of them attained a higher rank. 

In 1773 a division was made so as to form two companies ; 
and considerable rivalry existed between them for a long peri- 
od. The North company retained Capt. Fletcher as its com- 
mander, while the South chose Capt. Charles Barrett. At the 
commencement of the Revolution, the latter declined to act 
with the new government, and was superseded ; and we hear 
nothing of the doings of the former. 

In September, 1775, a reorganization of the Militia took 
place. This town was included in the fifteenth regiment, and 
our companies were styled the first (North) and second 
(South) companies. The first is supposed to have been com- 
manded by Capt. Abijah Smith, of which Stephen Parker was 
lieutenant ; the second by Captain Thomas Heald, who soon 
became colonel, and was succeeded as captain by Joseph Par- 
ker. Jonathan Davis was appointed ensign of the second 
company ; his commission, dated at Exeter, Sept. 5, 1775, is 
still extant; it is signed by Matthew Thornlon, as President, 
and bears the official seal of the Colony — a bundle of arrows, 
a fish and a pine tree, with the motto, "Vis unita fortior." 

About 1700, by a new organization of the Militia, this town 
was included in the twenty-second regiment, as it still is. 
The North company has been commanded by Capts. Benja- 
min Williams, Seth Wheeler, Ephraim Hartwell, Ezra Towne, 
Benjamin Adams, and in 1800 by Isaiah Kidder ; and subse- 
quently by Captains Supply Wilson, Abner Brown, Eleazer 



MILITARY AFFAIRS. 245 

Brown, Abijah Wetherbee, Josiah P. Wilder, and others. The 
commanders of the South company have been Jotham Hoar, 
Zechariah Parker, Timothy Fox, Jr., Noah Bartlett, Solo- 
mon Davis, John Everett, Peter Felt, Levi Bailey, Timothy 
Fox, 3d., Reuben Ramsdell, and probably several others. 

About 1798, the North company was organized as a Light 
Infantry corps, and were all in complete uniform. This was 
sustained for several years, while under the command of Capt. 
Benjamin Adams, who was afterwards Major. 

About 1796, a Cavalry company was organized in the regi- 
ment. It was got up mainly through the exertions of Capt. 
Jeremiah Prichard, who was its first commander. He had 
been an officer in the Revolution, and his military taste, ele- 
gant figure and fine horsemanship rendered him an excellent 
commander. The officers and privates were mostly from this 
town ; and they seldom paraded elsewhere, except at the an- 
nual musters. Their uniform was a scarlet coat, bulf breeches 
and red-topped boots, a low helmet cap with a bearskin crest 
and white plume tipped red on the side, and appropriate arms 
and accoutrements. It flourished for some twenty-five years, 
and had the reputation of being one of the best squadrons of 
Horse in the State. Its commanders were Jeremiah Prichard, 
Samuel Greely (of Wilton), W^illiam Prichard, Charles Cum- 
mings, Isaac Spaulding (who afterwards removed to Wilton), 
Jeremiah Prichard, Jr., Newton Willey, Asa Prichard, Charles 
Prichard, and perhaps others. 

During the war of 1812, and for several years after, there 
was a revival of the military spirit. Trainings were multipli- 
ed, and the companies put on something of the appearance of 
regular troops, by providing frontlets ornamented with stars 
and eagles, and tied on the hat with tasselled cords, so as to 
resemble somewhat the British grenadier cap of the Revolu- 
tion. 

In September 1816, a grand military fete took place, con- 
sisting of the two Infantry companies, the troop of Horse, and 
the Alarm List, composed of veterans under Capt. Abner Cliick- 
ering. There were also two tribes personating Indians, of 
which Roger Chandler and Elijah Town, were chiefs, which 
kept the town in alarm during the day by their sudden incur- 



246 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

sioiis and depredations. The sham fight and display afforded 
much gratification to the numerous spectators, and some as- 
tonished boys were heard to declare that it was equal to a 
muster. 

In 1818, a company of Independent Grenadiers was formed. 
Their uniform consisted of a chapeau de bras with green plume, 
blue coat with bell buttons, black pants with red corded seams, 
a new stand of arms, and accoutrements to match. A good 
band of music, for those days, was attached to it ; and it was 
decidedly the best uniformed and best disciplined company 
that had ever been attached to the regiment, and for ten years 
or more continued to bear the palm. On one occasion it went 
to Mont Yernon to do escort duty, on the Fourth of July ; 
and on a similar occasion it appeared at Wilton. Their com- 
manders were John Everett, John Shattuck, Samuel Chicker- 
ing, Lewis Epps, George Gibson, John P. Clark, and others. 

The following persons have held commissions as colonels : 
Reuben Kidder, Thomas Heald, Ezra Towne, Reuben Rams- 
dell, Jeremiah Smith, George Gibson, John P. Clark. 

Noah Bartlett and Supply Wilson were Majors, and Seth 
King held the commission of Adjutant and Brigade Inspector. 

Among the military organizations, we must not omit to 
mention some of the juvenile military companies. 

In 1800, a juvenile company was organized, which attract- 
ed great attention. It was commanded by Elias Phinney, 
afterwards of Lexington, and then a student at the Academy ; 
Ebenezer Start was lieutenant ; Caleb Farrar, ensign ; N. G. 
Duren, fifer ; Thomas Pollard, drummer. 

An Artillery company was organized about 1817. It was 
composed of boys from ten to fifteen years of age, and about 
forty in number. They wore white pants, dark roundabout 
jackets, and chapeanx de b?rfs, most of them made of black 
pasteboard, with a white red-tipped feather. They were pro- 
vided with swords, some of metal, but mostly of stained wood, 
and had a small field-piece. They attended the annual mus- 
ter at Wilton, and the commanding ofiicers of the regiment 
courteously assigned an honorable position on the field ; and 
as the Peterborough Artillery had come unprovided with pow- 
der, they had the pleasure of firing the salutes of the day. 



LOSSES BY FIRE. 247 

The town furnished them with rations and ammunition, and 
they attracted much attention by their prompt manoeuvres and 
soldierly bearing ; and during the sham fight they won unfad- 
ing honors, without any efiusion of blood. They were com- 
manded by Capt. Joseph Warren Lawrence. Bruce Wilkins 
was lieutenant. Ira Holden, now of New Orleans, was fifer ; 
and Mr. Kendall (formerly of the N. O. Picayune) was drum- 
mer. He has since made more noise in the world, and in the 
war with Mexico figured on a somewhat larger field. John 
Appleton, Esq., now Judge of the Supreme Court of Maine, 
was one of the sergeants, and the writer of this article another. 

In 1824, a similar company flourished. They made a dis- 
play at the celebration of the Fourth of July, and at the Mus- 
ter at Temple that year. They were commanded by Capt. 
Charles Smith (recently deceased at Mobile), who was suc- 
ceeded by Capt. George M. Champney. 

It would be interesting to publish at this time the rolls of 
these companies, could they be found. The members are now 
scattered from the Penobscot to the Mississippi. 

Some will remember another company, formed of the stu- 
dents of the Academy, in 1818, commanded by Capt. Thurs- 
ton, of Fitchburg. They had been warned, contrary to long 
custom, to appear at training. As they were numerous, and 
had no prospect of procuring a supply of arms, they organized 
a company, chose their officers, and paraded with a drum and 
fife, armed with books, which they manoeuvred in appropriate 
style. Their behavior was so satisfactory, that it was accept- 
ed as a due compliance with the laws, and they were excused 
from fine. 

Loss BY Fires. — The first building destroyed by fire, was 
the first meeting house, in 1748 : how it took fire is, and for- 
ever will remain, unsettled. It was probably of little value. 
A currier's shop, owner unknown, was burnt about 1775. 
The saw and grist mills in Mill Village, then owned by Sam- 
uel Cummings, were burnt about 1780. 

A school house, in the north east district, near where Mark 
Farrar now lives, was destroyed about 1790. 



I 



248 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

The dwelling house of Lt. John Pratt was consumed in 
1806. Loss of property about $1500. 

The store owned by Samuel Appleton, Esq., and occupied 
by Mr. Samuel Batchelder, was burnt Dec. 22d, 1812. Loss 
estimated at $7,000. The town Library, and many of the 
papers belonging to the Academy, were lost by this fire. 

A blacksmith's shop, belonging to Josiah Bacheller, stand- 
ing nearly opposite the house of Col Peter Clark, was burnt 
in 1812. 

In 1816, the dwelling house of Abijah Smith was des- 
troyed, by a spark alighting upon the roof. Nearly all the 
furniture was saved. 

Two barns, owned by Ebenezer Champney, were struck by 
lightning, and consumed in 1820. They were soon rebuilt, 
by the voluntary contributions and labors of the citizens. In 
the same year, Mrs. Burrows lost her barn, from the same 
cause. 

Jan'y 10th, 1820, the cotton and woollen factory of Mr. 
Sanderson was consumed ; it was rebuilt and burnt in 1825. 
These were severe losses to that industrious man. 

The dwelling house of Charles Bateman was consumed, 
about 1826. This was formerly the old Dix and Town's 
tavern. 

The dwelling of Samuel C. Wheeler was burnt in 1819. 
It was formerly the residence of Isaac How. Loss $2500. 

The old Fletcher mills were burnt by friction, in 1827; 
they were rebuilt and owned by Shattuck & Knowlton, and 
again burnt in 1836. Loss $2000. 

The Souhegan factory was burnt at midnight, Aug. 21, 
1838 ; loss estimated at thirty thousand dollars. 

A dwelling house and shop, standing opposite the new 
burying ground, and belonging to Stedman Houghton, was 
burnt in 1838. 

In 1844, a machine shop belonging to Capt. Eleazer Brown 
was burned. This building was the second cotton factory 
built in town. It was rebuilt and again burnt in 1846. 

Two barns belonging to Samuel Holden, were burned by 
lightning, in 1845. 



CASUALTIES. 249 

John Gould's dwelling was destroyed by fire, in 1836, and 
the house of Oliver Boynton, near it, in 1842. 

In 1851, the Mountain mills were damaged by fire, to the 
amount of about five thousand dollars. 

Casualties. — Nathan Page was killed by the fall of the 
limb of a tree, 1772. Simeon Fletcher was killed at the rais- 
ing of Wilton meetinghouse, 1793. Daniel Clary was killed 
by falling at the raising of Dea. Ephraim Adams, Jr.'s barn, 
in the attempt to stand on his head on the ridgepole, 1772. 
Elizabeth Going was wounded by a splinter, and bled to 
death, 1798. A child of James Barr was killed by a cart, 
1799. Jonathan Bigelow was killed in a well, 1799. Col. 
Ezra Town was killed by falling upon a hay-hook, 1795. 
Simeon Wright cut his ancle, which bled profusely ; he ran a 
few rods and fell dead. Isaac Preston was killed by a fall 
from a dam, in Ashby, 1806. A child, named Wheeler, was 
burnt in the house of John Pratt, 1806. The wife of Zech- 
ariah Parker was burned, by her clothes taking fire, in 1808. 
William Kimball Bacheller was thrown from his horse, strik- 
ing his head on the hub of a wheel, and was killed, 1811. 
Jonas Jones, ad. 81, fell dead from his horse, in Ashby, 1818. 
Jacob Ames was killed by falling from the dam of the Souhe- 
gan Factory, 1825. Capt. William Prichard was thrown from 
his chaise by the fall of his horse, and broke his neck, 1835 ; 
it was in Wilton, near the spot where his friend Capt. Samuel 
Greele, long associated with him in the Cavalry Company, 
was killed, while riding past, by the fall of a tree. His wife, 
Deidamia Prichard, was found dead, suffocated by her cloth- 
ing having taken fire, 1840. Samuel Chickering was killed 
by the kick of a horse, 1836. Joseph Spear died suddenly 
from drinking cold water, 1818. Gilman Spaulding was kill- 
ed with an axe, by an insane brother, 1842. Alva Butler 
was caught by the machinery at Brown's factory, and killed, 
1844. Luke H. Cutter was frozen to death, 1845. 

Drow7ied. A child of Peter Warren, at Farrar's mill, 1798. 

Nathan Pratt was drowned 1802. James Jewett, 1806. 

A child of John Prichard, 1808. Alanson Prichard, at Mason 

Village. Josiah Fisk, at Medford, 1818. A child of William 

32 



250 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

Matthews fell through the ice at the Factory, 1842. Wilham 
Hall, at Westminster, 1844. 

Suicide. Almira Griswold, in a state of religious melan- 
choly, committed suicide, by hanging herself on a tree, in 
1829. This is the only instance of suicide that has occurred 
in town. 

Roads and Bridges. — The condition of the highways, in 
the early settlement of the town, can now hardly be imagined. 
When the lots of the town were plotted, provision was made 
for roads in strait lines across the ends of the lots, east and 
west, and between every four lots, north and south. As these 
localities were impracticable, roads were laid out across lots, 
and the strips set aside for roads added to the farms encroached 
upon. This often gave rise to troublesome quarrels. They 
were mere bridle paths, formed by cutting away a few trees, 
and winding through the woods, over one hill after another, 
and making the travelled distance between many places near- 
ly double the distance it now is. All travel was done on 
horseback. The roads gradually improved, down to the Rev- 
olution ; but it was not till about the beginning of the present 
century that they were in a condition to be travelled with 
safety, by any of the various kinds of carriages now in use. 
It is said, that the present condition of the " old blueberry 
pasture road," from the old burying ground westward, is a 
fair sample of what the roads were some sixty years ago. In 
fact, down to the end of the last century, it was almost impos- 
sible to get into or out of the town, with a pleasure carriage. 

At their meeting in June, 175U, the Masonian Proprietors 
voted, " to build a Bridg over Souhegan River, on or near the 
same place wheare the former Bridg was built." Benjamin 
Hoar and Capt. Jonas Woolson were to build it in the course 
of the summer, and when "finished workmanlike in the judg- 
ment of indifferent men," they were to receive £55, old tenor. 
This bridge was at the same place where the road crosses the 
river, above the upper factory. They also chose a commit- 
tee to repair the Ways of the town that are absolutely nec- 
essary, not to exceed the sum of £30, old tenor. 

The principal road referred to, was the one which entered 



ROADS AND BRIDGES. 251 

the town from Townsend, south of the Wheeler tavern, thence 
over the hill by the Tucker place to the bridge, thence past 
Judge Farrar's place to the meeting-house, thence past the 
Appleton and Kidder estates towards the Spofibrd gap, and so 
on to the towns above. This was called, in after time, the 
" old countrey road." It was agreed to have this road four 
rods wide, and the others two rods wide. It was formally laid 
out and accepted " neare about wheare People now Travil," 
in 1752 ; and, although it was the great thoroughfare of the 
town, the trees were still standing in it, and it was then voted 
" not to fell the trees on the main road through the town," as 
lately as 1759. There were other paths to accommodate the 
Adamses, and as far as the Wilson farms. Another led to 
Abijah Foster's, at the Bakehouse village. 

Chandler's Mills having been built in 1750, it was voted 
the next year, to build a bridge across the river near the 
mills, provided it could be completed, workmanlike, for the 
sum of £50, old tenor. It stood a little below the High 
Bridge. It was built by Timothy Heald, and was accepted 
Oct. 1753. The next year it was voted " to board the Bridges 
over Souhegan River, on each side." It was rebuilt in 1759, 
and those who built it were "allowed for thirty-nine days 
work and for two gallons of Rhum, and the necessary ox- 
work." 

In 1753, a road was laid out to Rov/ley Canada (Rindge). 
This road ran from the Bakehouse village, over the Burrows 
hill, passed the Wheeler farms to Ephraim Adams', and then 
directly over the mountain to the Godding village. 

In 1754, the road from the village to Temple, by way of 
the Wilson farms, was laid out. In 1755, the road from the 
Hodgkins corner to the Safford farm, and so on up the Safford 
lane to the Farrar place, which was the only way of coming 
to the old meeting house from the south and southwest, until 
the road running between the two burying grounds was con- 
structed in 17()8. A road over the hills, to the northeast cor- 
ner of the town, towards Wilton, was also laid out this year. 

The road ' that goes to Dorchester Canada,' (Ashburnham) 
was spoken of 1765, and a Bridge at the Mills Village was 



252 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

built by Timothy Heald, for £35, old tenor, in 1759. It was 
rebuilt by Samuel Cummings, in 1771-72. 

The south road, from the town line to Dr. Gibson's, and 
thence north past Wilkins and Safford, was accepted in 1755 ; 
and Amos Whittemore, in 1756, was allowed £35, old tenor, 
for a Bridge across the Souhegan. This road had probably 
been laid out before this time, for on the Townsend Records 
of 1750, are the minutes of a road to the town line, evidently 
continuous with this. Among the early roads not yet men- 
tioned, and which were the accustomed lines of travel at the 
time, was one from the bridge below Chandler's mills, south- 
eastward up the hill to the Woolson and Bullard farms, then 
south entering the country road above the Wheeler tavern ; 
another from the same point northeastward over the hill, by 
Stratton's to Mason ; another ran southerly over the hill to 
the Tucker farm, and then onward along the high land com- 
ing out at the Whittemore estate. The road from the mill to 
the centre village, ran near the old turnpike, or a little to the 
north of it, crossing the Mill Brook at the Forge, then passed 
the Adams houses, then southerly crossing the turnpike and 
passing Dr. Preston, and so on to the centre road. 

In the northwest, the road from Rindge, which ran nearly 
where it now does from the Merriam tavern, then crossed the 
turnpike and passed up the side of Flat Mountain, where it 
was joined by the road coming from Reed, Silas Davis & Wal- 
ton ; then past the Brown and Stephen Davis farms to where 
S. C. Wheeler resides ; then through the Bakehouse village and 
down the centre road to the meeting-house. From the south 
burying-ground there was a road running north to the Tho. 
Spaulding house, thence onward to Reuben Taylor's, then 
turning easterly entered the Malthouse road across the Blue- 
berry pasture, which entered the centre road not far above 
the old meeting-house. 

The road from Dr. Gibson's to the Bakehouse village was 
laid out in 1779. The road from the old Academy down the 
hill, passing the Hills house, and to the westward of Esquire 
Preston's house, was opened about the year 1790. The road 
from the Bakehouse to the turnpike was laid out in 1804. 



ROADS AND BRIDGES. 253 

Great improvements have been made, the present century, 
in laying out new roads along the valleys, instead of those 
along the rocky ridges of the hills ; and at the same time by 
rendering them more direct. The most important have been 
the road eastward from the meeting-house towards the Facto- 
ries, in 1814; the road from opposite the tavern at the turn- 
pike, towards Temple and Mason, in 1817, at an expense of 
about $1000 ; the road from the meeting-house, along the 
river, to Dr. Gibson's corner, in 1835 ; the road from the High 
bridge to Mason village, in 1832. Many others of less extent 
might be mentioned. 

The road from the School-house corner to the turnpike was 
opened in 1802 ; its continuation, as it now runs, to the tan- 
yard, was not opened till 1815. In 1818 the turnpike was 
made free to the citizens, on condition of their keeping a cer- 
tain portion of it in repair, and it virtually became a town 
road afterwards. 

Any further enumeration of the Roads is unnecessary, as 
they may be seen on the Map, most of them having the date 
of their being laid out attached, and the discontinued roads 
being designated by broken lines. 

The highways have been multiplied, and kept in repair by 
an annual tax, which has been received in money, or in labor 
at a determinate rate, at the option of the person taxed. Be- 
fore the incorporation of the town, a committee of three was 
chosen annually to superintend the repairs of Highways. In 
1767, the town was divided into districts, with a surveyor for 
each one. In the beginning there were nine districts ; in 1775 
there were twelve; in 1782 there were fourteen, and they 
have been but little multiplied since. The Surveyor decides 
upon the repairs to be made, and notifies the inhabitants of his 
district of the time fixed upon for making them ; when they 
assemble with the requisite caitle and tools, and work in con- 
cert. Working at the highways has therefore been a sort of 
holiday occasion, when, as at raisings and huskings, neigh- 
bors have met each other, and relieved the monotony of every- 
day farming with social glee, and the pleasurable perception 
that "many hands make light work." The Surveyor exult- 
ed in his "brief authority"; the strongest men held the 



254 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

great plough and relaid the bridges ; the vigorous young men 
took the shovels, and their fathers the hoes ; while those of 
acknowledged dignity passed along with crowbars, to loosen 
the projecting stones, and the boys threw them out of the 
road. Most of the tax was worked out as soon as the roads 
were settled in spring ; but a portion was reserved for any re- 
pairs which might be needed at autumn. 

During the Masonian proprietorship, the taxes were assess- 
ed upon each right ; and they amounted, in various years, to 
from £2 to £8, old tenor. After the incorporation, no specific 
appropriation for highways was made for several years, but 
the sums expended were taken from the general funds ; and 
there seems to have been a question as to the proper method 
of an equitable apportionment of the expense. But, in 1767, 
it was voted to repair the roads by taxes on estates, the same 
as in other cases. Up to 1782, the annual tax varied, accord- 
ing to the state of the currency, from £80 to £7000, being in 
reality about £100 per annum, excepting in the year 1778, 
when, on account of the heavy requisitions for the army, only 
half the sum was voted. 

The rate per diem, for labor, varied also with the value of 
money. In 1752, the laborers were allowed 155. a day, and 
the overseers 205., old tenor; in 1756, 355. ; 1757, £2; 1758, 
£3 ; 1772, in June, 205., in September, I85. ; for oxen, 125. ; 
for plough, 5s. ; for cart, 55. ; in 1780, it was |40 a day ; and 
in 1781, £12 per diem ; the next year, when the currency was 
again settled, the allowance was 35. per diem, which was in 
reality about the equivalent of the preceding rates, apparently 
so enormous. In 1795, the allowance was 45, a day ; 1820, 
83 cents ; 1836, $1. 

Carriages. — The first vehicles in town had only two wheels; 
and all the transportation to and from Boston was done in ox- 
carts. Even the bakers' and butchers' carts were of this kind. 
Wagons for heavy burdens and for family use, with four wheels, 
but without springs, were introduced at the beginning of the 
century. Previous to the Revolution, Col. Kidder had a four- 
wheeled vehicle for two horses, called a curricle ; and this 
was the only pleasure carriage for a long time. The first 



TEMPERANCE REFORM, 255 

Chaise in town was owned by George Barrett, about 1796. 
He not only used it himself, but allowed his neighbors to do 
so ; and it was in such demand that it was often engaged seve- 
ral weeks in advance. Capt. Kidder, Ephraim Hartwell, Eb- 
enezer Champney, Samuel Batchelder and Enos Knight were 
perhaps the only other persons who had them previous to 
1810. After this time they rapidly increased. The first pri- 
vate coach was kept by Charles Barrett, Esq., about 1815, 
and was an object of great admiration. The Jersey wagon 
was introduced about 1812, and soon became the possession of 
nearly every one who could not afford a chaise. 

Temperance Reform. — Universal indulgence in the use of 
ardent spirits, as has been already stated, was at one time the 
besetting sin of the inhabitants; and although very many are 
at this day entirely guiltless in this respect, yet if any one 
thing more than any other is sapping the peace and prosperity 
of the town, it is still indulgence in spirituous liquors. 

The first movement in behalf of temperance was in 1770, 
when the town objected to the number of licenses, and has 
been already recorded, p. 66. No further public action was 
taken until 1823, when the town voted "that they disapprove 
of selling liquors within the walls of the Townhouse on town- 
meeting days." This practice had become a regular custom, 
and during the two or three days usually consumed by the 
annual March meeting, was quite a profitable operation. It 
did not entirely cease till some years afterward. 

In 1835, the temperance question was formally brought up 
in town-meeting, and the following Resolutions were intro- 
duced by John Preston, Esq. 

" Resolved, That the use of Ardent Spirits as a drink, is a 
great moral evil, being the primary cause of most of the pov- 
erty, distress and crime existing among us ; therefore 

" Resolved, That the Selectmen be respectfully requested 
to grant no licenses to retailers within the limits of this town 
the ensuing year." 

These resolutions passed without dissent, and were directed 
to be placed on record. 

The next year they were again introduced, but not acted 



256 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

upon. In 1837 and 1838 the Selectmen were directed to grant 
no licenses during the year; and in 1839 the vote on the 
indefinite postponement of the same question was taken by 
yea and nay — yeas 102, nays 109. No licenses were there- 
fore authorized except for medicinal purposes. A decided 
check was given to the sale of liquors in small quantities. 
There were, however, evasions ; and some places for tippling 
were established just across the line of the town, or in seclud- 
ed places which were never visited for any other purpose. 
But he who would drink was compelled to do so by stealth ; 
and few were willing to be found in such connection. 
A Lodge of the Sons of Temperance has been formed. 

Slavery. It may be strange, and probably unwelcome, to 
some of the present inhabitants, to learn that the " peculiar 
institution " once existed within our borders. Long previous 
to the revolution, the minister, the doctor, the magistrate, the 
deacon and the captain, all were slave owners. 

The first one ov/ned in town was a man, belonging to Dea- 
con Adams. Tradition says he was very discontented when 
comparing the solitudes of the wilderness with the cleared 
fields of old Ipswich. Soon after, Col. Kidder had two, one 
of whom was a girl, and died young ; Caesar, the man, was 
purchased in Chelmsford, for £10, when seven years old. 
Scipio, owned by Capt. Hoar; Patience, by Rev. Stephen 
Farrar ; Boston, by Doctor Preston, Sen. ; and Grace, by Paul 
Prichard, died young. 

It was considered that, by the declarations in the State Con- 
stitution, they could be no longer held to service ; indeed a bold 
resolution on this subject was voted by the town, as early 
as 1776. Although in fact free, they all continued attached 
to the families where they had spent their youth. Three of 
them attained to an old age, and long outlived their masters. 

Csesar lived with the family till after Col. Kidder died; 
then built a small house of his own, on the plain, south east 
of his old master's mansion, and would occasionally draw 
supplies from the old farm, on which, as he said, he had spent 
the marrow of his bones. He, about that time, married Ro- 
sanna, and had one child, which died at an early age, as 



VITAL STATISTICS. 257 

Csesar believed, by the malicious influence of a witch. His 
wife lost her reason, and for many years spoke not a word, 
and would stand motionless for hours. He believed her to be 
imder the spell of the witch also, and bestowed upon her the 
kindest and most constant care. He died in 181(3, at the age 
of about 70. 

" Old Boston" lived to a truly patriarchal age. He always 
declared himself to be " 'bove century," and no doubt spoke 
the truth. He used to say that his father wasKingof Bungo, 
and had a "silver steppy stone a' door, and a goldy iron pot." 
He afforded a striking example of native piety and native 
eloquence. He had acquired a knowledge of the Bible histo- 
ries, which he used to recite, with additions and interpreta- 
tions of his own, with a pathos and eloquence which always 
brought tears from his own eyes, and often from those of his 
hearers. He was one of the attractions at musters and town 
meetings, and his recital of the stories of Adam and Kve, of 
Jonah, and of the Crucifixion, are still remembered by the 
older citizens. 

Patience, or •' Pashe," as she was usually called, was a liv- 
ing exemplification of her name. Her intellect was of a low 
order ; but she was simple-hearted and faithful, and her great 
powers of endurance, under the direction of others, rendered 
her a useful servant. She also lived to a great age, probably 
85 years. She died in 1844. 

Vital Statistics. — For the earlier part of the town's his- 
tory, no reliable record of deaths is to be found. It is to be 
presumed, however, that when the Record Book was com- 
menced, most of the deaths which had occured were entered 
upon it, as might easily have been done. Who the first victim 
was is not known. Ebenezer Bullard, Benjamin Adams, 
Benjamin King and Benjamin Hoar, each lost a child in 1752 ; 
and these are the earliest deaths on record. It is the tradition, 
that five persons were interred on the meeting-house hill at 
the head of Satford Lane, previous to 1753. The above, with 
another child of B. Hoar, who died that year, may have been 
the persons. From the town and family records, and from 
grave-stones, the names of eighty-two persons have been ob- 
33 



258 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

tained up to 1780. From that time to 1820 we are entirely 
indebted to the private record of Josiah Wahon. Up to the 
time of his removal to Temple, about 1797, it is probably 
complete ; and its correspondence afterwards, with the proper 
rate of mortality, shows that he kept it with a great degree of 
accuracy up to the time he was eighty-five years of age, a 
period of about forty years. The number given by him from 
1780 to 1800 is 202, and is probably complete. The number 
from 1800 to 1820 is 384. For the next three years only four 
deaths have been ascertained. From 1824 to the present time 
the list is again complete, having been accurately kept by John 
Gould, Jr. and Clark Obear. The whole number of deaths in 
that period is 652, making a total of 1320; and if we place 
the whole number of deaths in town at 1500, it cannot be far 
from correct. 

The average of life for the last twenty-five years, has been 
about 36 years ; but a marked difference appears between the 
average during the first and second halves of this period. 
During the first it is only about 32 years, and during the 
second nearly 40. The year 1824 was remarkable for the 
mortality among old people. There were 17 deaths, with an 
average age of fifty years. The lowest average in any year 
was in 1829, when it was 14 years. The largest number of 
deaths in any year was 50, in 1842. 

A writer in the Farmer's Cabinet, in 1809, signing himself 
Philo-historicus, (Benjamin Champney ?) says : " As a proof 
of the salubrity of the Monadnock atmosphere, I have selected 
the following instances of longevity from forty females of this 
place, who have lived in a married state and reared children, 
but in May were widows, enjoying a comfortable state of 
health," — and he might have added, as an example of the 
fact, that females more frequently attain a great age than men 
—"viz.: 1 of 100; 2 of 90; 3 of 80; 13 of 70; 9 of 60; 6 of 
50; 2 of 40; 3 of 30; making an aggregate of 2470 years." 
Esquire Champney also states, that on the first day of Janu- 
ary 1823, there were to his knowledge sixty persons living in 
town between the ages of 70 and 95. Two were totally blind ; 
one imbecile ; the residue enjoying comfortable health, and 
many of them capable of labor and business. 



BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 259 

Of 444 persons whose ages bave been ascertained from pub- 
lic and private records and from tombstones, there have died 
at the age of 100 and upwards, 3 ; 90, 20 ; SO, 63 ; 70, 95 ; 
60, 69; 50, 43; 40, 34; 30, 36; 20, 60; 10, 14; under 10, 7. 
The person who attained to the greatest age was Hon. Tim- 
othy Farrar, who died aged 101 years 5 months. The next 
was Margaret Bacon, wife of Retire Bacon, who was 100 
years 5 months 21 days old ; and as her eulogy, and evidently 
as a remarkable thing at that time (1808), it is stated in the 
newspaper announcement of her death, that " she drank noth- 
ing stronger than small beer, for fourteen years before her 
death." William Burrows lived to the age of 97, retaining 
his sight and hearing perfectly, walking with the step of 60, 
and writing a fair hand. Josiah Walton and Mrs. Dady died 
at 95. The oldest couple was Silas Davis, 94, and his wife 
Mary, 91. Jonas Wheeler, Joseph Davis, and Joseph Ten- 
ney were 94; Simeon Gould, Benjamin Safford, Thomas Em- 
ery and Rebecca Cragin (Mrs. Barrett), 93 ; Simeon Blanch- 
ard, Mrs. James Spaulding and Mrs. Ebenezer Brown, 92. 

Burial of the Dead. — In a small community, the death and 
burial of an individual is a matter of general concern, and all 
are accustomed to gather, to take a last look at the remains of 
an associate, and to pay them the last honors. The body of 
the deceased was borne to its final resting-place on a bier, upon 
the shoulders of persons of like age, and others followed in 
solemn procession. The reputed rites of hospitality were also 
expected at the house of the deceased, and in some instances, 
especially in the days when ardent spirits were freely used, 
scenes of conviviality would usurp the place of sober lamenta- 
tion. It was an established custom, after the body had been 
deposited and the first earth thrown upon it, for the conductor 
of the funeral to thank the friends for their attendance, and 
invite the bearers to return to the house of the deceased, to 
partake of refreshments. Other friends were often invited on 
the occasion, and the remainder of the day was spent in 
good cheer. In 1790 the subject of more regular processions 
at burials was agitated ; and in 1792 eight directors were 
chosen who were to govern the procession at bmiais in difierent 



260 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

parts of the town. In 1802 it was voted to procure new burial 
clothes for the use of the town. In 1804 it was voted to pro- 
cure a hearse. This was done, and a hearse-house was built 
at the foot of the old burying ground. It was afterwards re- 
moved to the south-east corner of the new burying ground, 
where it stood until the removal of the horse sheds in 1836. 

Burial Grounds. — The first burials were made at a spot at 
the head of Safford lane, near where the first meeting-house 
stood. The burial ground on the hill, now called the " old 
burial ground " was laid out in 1752, and the first burials in 
it took place in 1753. In 1774 it was voted to build a faced 
wall on both roads. In 1784 it was voted "to have the burial 
grounds fenced with a stone wall, and make decent gates, and 
face the walls on the sides of the gates." In 1849 the wahs had 
again fallen and had become a disgrace to the memory of the 
forefathers. An effort was therefore made, and a sum of 
money was raised, chiefly from persons no longer resident, 
whose ancestors were buried there ; a new wall was built 
under the direction of the town, and the spot was somewhat 
ornamented with young trees. We trust that the love of an- 
cestry and the love of virtue will, from time to time, rebuild 
the walls of this ancient cemetery, and suffer not its tottering 
and sinking tombstones to be removed or violated. 

In 1778 the South Burying Ground near the Mill Village M^as 
laid out. The first person buried there was probably John 
Breed, 1780. 

In 1807, a committee was appointed to obtain a new bury- 
ing ground in the middle of the town, and the present cemetery 
was procured and laid out in 1809. The first interment was 
made the same year — Elizabeth, wife of John Appleton. It is 
a solemn thought, to those who remember this burial, forty-two 
years ago, that this ground, which then seemed so ample, is 
now almost wholly occupied, more than a whole generation 
sleeping there ; and that it has become necessary to extend its 
limits. 



POPULATION. 



261 



Population. — The estimated number of inhabitants at dif- 
ferent periods, up to the Revohition, has ah'eady been given ; 
but for the sake of direct comparison, the numbers are here 
repeated. In 1750 about 120 ; in 1760 about 350 ; in 1770 
about 650. The actual enumeration commoices in December 
1773, when there were 882 persons ; in September 1775 there 
were 956; 1790,1241; 1800,1266; 1810,1393; 1820,1278; 
1830, 1673 ; 1840, 1578 ; 1850, 1878. 

The number of rateable polls in 1773 was 160 ; 1775, 205 ; 
1777, 160; 1779, 185; 1783, 189; 1788, 222; 1798, 202; 
1803, 195 ; 1808, 193. The number of qualified voters, which 
corresponds to the number of rateable polls, was, in 1825, 320 ; 
1828, 312; 1829, 335; 1831, 312; 1832, 321 ; 1834, 335; 
1835, 365 ; 1836, 372 ; 1838, 386 ; 1839, 344. The influence 
of the revolutionary war, and of the factory operations, in 
modifying the number of adult males, is at once perceptible 
by the above numbers. 

The following table will give some idea of the progress 
made in clearing the farms and bringing the land under culti- 
vation. It would seem, however, as if the valuation must 
have been made upon a diflerent basis at different times, espe- 
cially in 1808. 





1773. 


'1— 


1779. 


1783. 
189 


1788. 
222 


1798. 
202 


1803. 
195 


1808. 


Male polls, . 




169 


160 


185 


193 


Slaves, . 




3 


1 


1 


1 


1 








Acres of Orchard, 




18 


43 


41 


65 


69 


115 


112 


110 


" Arable, 


■'.] 


881 


1339 


220 




233 


232 


228 


200 


" Mowing, 




1160 


1270 


908 


991 


972 


850 


" Pasture, . 




3118 


4662 


4511 


4361 


4327 


4091 


3357 


2050 


Horses, 


'.■] 


201 




170 




105 


223 


224 


169 


Oxen, 


234 


107 


246 


136 


171 


169 


208 


Cows, 




267 


341 


335 


392 


384 


530 


555 


454 


Three year old cattle, 






160 


131 


145 


174 


178 


150 


118 


Two year old " 




118 


224 


121 


206 


202 


357 


246 


144 


Yearlings, 




145 


242 


203 178 


262 


62 







According to the census of 1850, there were 113 farms, 343 
dwellings, and 21 different manufactories. 

Fire Department. — A Fire Department was organized in 
1828, and has nearly supplanted the military companies. 
There are now three Fire Engines in town, to each of which 



about twenty men are attached. 



262 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

Music. — In this town the singers sat separate from the con- 
gregation, forming a choir, at a very early date ; and here, first 
in the region, money was raised to encourage the cuhivation 
of music. In 1801, the proposition to appropriate money for 
the encouragement of music, was strongly opposed at town 
meeting by some who considered it not only a waste of money, 
but as likely to introduce innovations dangerous to the spirit 
of religious worship. But they were so severely castigated in 
the "New Year's Gift," that no opposition was ever made 
afterwards ; and in 1802, ^50 were appropriated, to be ex- 
pended under the direction of B. Champney, Benj. Williams 
and the Selectmen. In 1803, 1807 and 1808, forty and fifty 
dollars were appropriated. The first school that bore the 
name of Singing School, was about the year 1787. It was 
conducted by John Warner and Amos Prichard. The music 
of Billings and Holden was then for a short time practised, 
but was never heartily accepted. About this time Mr. Law 
published a selection of Anthems and Psalm tunes, which not 
only augmented the scanty stock of tunes to which congrega- 
tions had been limited, but was really good music. His books 
were introduced. Soon after, William Emerson (the late Dr. 
Emerson, of Kennebunk) taught a singing school. His advice 
to Ebenezer Adams, afterwards Professor at Dartmouth Col- 
lege, who had a very harsh tone, is still remembered — that he 
had better save his voice to split wood with. By perseverance 
he subsequently became a good singer. No individual, how- 
ever, had so great an influence in forming the taste for classical 
music, and in elevating the style of performance as Mr. Hub- 
bard, who was about this time teacher of the grammar school 
and subsequently preceptor of the Academy. He had made 
music a study, and was quite in advance of the age. A suffi- 
cient evidence of his knowledge and cultivation in music, is 
given in an " Essay on Music," pronounced by him before the 
Middlesex Musical Society, in 1807. 

In 1795 a school was taught by Reuben Emerson, * who is 
still living, as are many of his pupils. His tastes were in 
unison with those of Mr. Hubbard, and a selection was made 

* Rev. Reuben Emerson, now of Reading, Mass. 



MUSIC. 263 

from various sources, of tunes of a truly devotional charac- 
ter ; and for want of books, most of the scholars were obliged 
to copy the parts they sung, in manuscript. His personal 
character, as well as the music he introduced, had a decidedly 
favorable and lasting influence upon his pupils. Rev. David 
Palmer, afterwards of Townsend, had a pleasant voice, and 
fine musical taste, and he too assisted in giving a favorable 
impulse to musical performances. 

In 1805 or 6, Ichabod Johnson kept a school, and introduced 
a lighter kind of music. He could not sing himself, but with 
a good faculty at teaching, and the help of his violin (when 
he was sober) and assisted by one or two reliable persons on 
each part, he succeeded in collecting a large school, was pop- 
ular, and on the whole gave an impulse to music generally, 
though he rather detracted from the devotional spirit. His 
school was the first that was allowed a permanent station in 
the gallery, as a choir. 

Yery soon afterwards, N. D. Gould became distinguished as 
a teacher of music, both vocal and instrumental, and became 
well known as such, throughout the State and in the adjacent 
parts of Massachusetts. He had received his first instruction 
from Mr. Reuben Emerson, and had imbibed his taste for sci- 
entific music, teaching it as a preparation for the solemn act 
of religious worship. 

About this time the Middlesex Musical Society was formed, 
embracing persons of cultivated taste, from many of the 
neighboring towns, whose object it was to meet for the per- 
formance of anthems, and to select and publish, as well as 
perform, psalmody of a higher style than was to be found in 
any American music books then in use. This Society was 
the first, or perhaps the second of the kind formed in America. 
From it the " Middlesex Collection " resulted, and good ser- 
vice was done for the cause of Church Music. It was at first 
under the guidance of Rev. Dr. Chaplin, of Groton, who, with 
Mr. Beede of Wilton, Mr. Palmer of Townsend, and most of 
the clergymen of the vicinity were associated in it. Mr. Gould 
conducted the performances several years. 

The Hubbard Society, about the year 1815, was formed in 
town, with similar objects. It was conducted for several 



264 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

years by Deacon Gould, and under the paternal solicitude of 
the venerable Judge Farrar as President, then 70 years old, 
and himself one of the performers, it was a most efficient 
and excellent society. It is not too much to say that the 
performances were in advance of the day, and that, with 
the exception of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, no 
other musical society in the country surpassed it. Two or 
three public concerts were given, at different times, one as 
early as 1817, and great numbers were attracted from the vi- 
cinity, to enjoy a performance so rare. It continued an active 
association for many years, and we believe still exists; and to 
many persons, some of the pleasantest remembrances of the 
town are connected with it. 

For the last thirty years the music has been of a high or- 
der, though since the almost universal attention to music, it 
may not rank so high, relatively to other places, as formerly. 
It has been conducted by Deacon .John Clark, and by his sons 
John P. and Peter Clark. The latter gentleman is well known 
as a skillful teacher, and few can be said to surpass him as a 
performer on instruments. 

A Military Band was formed, as early as 1804 or 5, princi- 
pally by the exertions of N. D. Gould, and was under his di- 
rection. It was the first Band formed in that part of the State. 
It was next instructed by Ichabod Johnson, with the addition 
of other performers, and was really well drilled and performed 
wondrously. At no period since, has there been a time when 
there were not enough performers to constitute a good band. 
About 1818, Jonas Barrett, of Ashby, gave instruction in in- 
strumental music, and a band was formed, connected with the 
'' Grenadiers," led by John Tolman. And those who attended 
tlie Centennial Celebration will bear witness to the great pre- 
cision and good taste of the Band under the direction of Peter 
Clark, Esq. 

Bethel Lodge of Freemasons was instituted in 1815, the 
members constituting it having been dismissed from a Lodge 
in Ashby. John Everett was the first master ; N. D. Gould 
was his successor. It was formerly well sustained. 



BOUNTIES — TORNADOES. 265 

Watatic Lodge of Odd Fellows was instituted about 1840, 
and now numbers sixty-three members. About $300 were 
distributed in charity during the last year. 

Bounties on Wild Animals have sometimes been offered. 
To the destruction of bears, wolves, foxes and hawks there 
can be no valid objection. But had the habits of crows and 
woodpeckers been better understood, they never would have 
had a price placed upon their heads, unless it were for their 
preservation. The injury they do is infinitely more than 
compensated by the benefits they confer, in the destruction of 
myriads of pernicious worms and insects, which neither the 
eye nor the hand of man can reach. At one time it was voted 
to pay a copper a head to encourage killing woodpeckers. In 
1798, it was voted to give one shilling a head for killing old 
crows, and sixpence a head for young ones. In 1816 a boun- 
ty of seventeen cents for crows was granted. In 1833, eigh- 
teen crows and forty foxes were presented for bounty. The 
next 5/^ear all bounties were withdrawn, though many unsuc- 
cessful attempts have since been made to impose them. 

A Tornado, in 1769, passed through the northeasterly part 
of the town, originating near the south part of the Nathaniel 
Gould farm, near the Kidder hill, passed a little south of east 
through the Appleton farm, cut a broad and clean track 
through the forest, which was clearly recognized for thirty or 
forty years afterwards by the new growth of trees. In pass- 
ing the Start house, at the School-house corner, it lifted the 
roof from the house, and carried it many rods. 

In 1806, July 10, a terrible hurricane and hail-storm occur- 
red, also at the northeast part of the town, between Temple, 
Mason and New Ipswich. Over an area two or three miles 
square, all the grain was cut down or prostrated ; orchards 
were torn up; buildings were unroofed, and in some instances 
torn in pieces : all the exposed glass was broken, and even 
the bark was grazed from the trees by the hailstones, some of 
which had not wholly melted eight hours afterwards. 

The great September gale of 1815 unroofed and overturned 
many buildings, and uprooted most of the old hemlock trees 
in the forest. 

34 



266 



MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 



OFFICERS OF THE MASONIAN PROPRIETORS. 



Year. 


Moderators. 


Clerks. 


1749. 


Joseph Blanchard. 


John Stevens. 


1750. 


Jonathan Hubbard. 


it K 


1751. 


Isaac Appleton. 


«. «t 


1752. 


Jonas Woolson. 


Benjamin Adams 


1753. 


Reuben Kidder. 


<4 It 


1754. 


Timothy Heald. 


(t tt 


1755. 


Ephraim Adams. 


it tt 


1756. 


Reuben Kidder. . 


Timothy Heald. 


1757. 


Ichabod How. 


ft (C 


1758. 


Benjamin Hoar. 


tt tt 


1759. 


Benjamin Hoar. 


tt tt 


1760. 


Reuben Kidder. 


(t tt 


1761. 


Jonas Woolson. 


Ichabod How. 


1762. 


Thomas Heald. 


tt tt 



LIST OF TOWN OFFICERS. 



Year. Moderators. 

1762. Jonas Woolson. . 

1763. Timothy Heald. . 

1764. Timothy Heald. . 

1765. Benjamin Hoar, . 



Town Clerks. 
Moses Tucker. 

Timothy Heald. . 

Ichabod How. 

Benjamin Adams, 



1766. Interregnum.. 

1767. Reuben Kidder. . . Isaac Appleton. . 

1768. Moses Tucker. . . Benjamin Adams. 

1769. Samuel Kinney. . . Benjamin Adams. 

1770. Joseph Stevens. . . Benjamin Adams. 

1771. Ebenezer Champney. John Preston. • . 

1772. Joseph Stevens. . . Benjamin Adams, 



Selectmen. 

3Ioses Tucker, 
John Preston, 
Robert Crosby. 
Ichabod How, 
Timothy Heald, 
John Chandler. 
Ichabod How, 
Benjamin Adams, 
Thomas Heald. 
Benjamin Adams, 
Benjamin Hoar, 
Isaac Appleton. 
Thomas Heald, 

Isaac Appleton, 
Nathaniel Stone, 
Aaron Kidder, 
Benjamin Hoar. 
Benjamin Adams, 
Isaac Appleton, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Benjamin Adams, 
Thomas Heald, 
John Preston. 
Benjamin Adams, 
Isaac Appleton, 
William Shattuck. 
John Preston, 
Charles Barrett, 
Samuel Whittemore. 
Benjamin Adams, 
William Shattuck, 
Benjamin Adams, 
Isaac Appleton. 



TOWN OFFICERS. 



267 



Year. Moderators. Town Clerks. 

1773. Ebenezer Champney. Benjamin x\dams. 

1774. Ebenezer Champney. Timothy Farrar. . 

Representatives. 

1775. William Shattuck. . Isaac How. . . 



1776. Joseph Bates. 



Isaac How. 



1777. Benjamin Adams. . Isaac How. . 

1778. John Preston. . . . Isaac Appleton. 

1779. Ebenezer Champney. Isaac Appleton. 



1780. John Brown. . . 

1781. Timothy Farrar. . 

1782. Ephraim Adams. 

1783. Ephraim Adams. . 

1784. Ephraim Adams. . 

1785. Ephraim Adams. . 

1786. John Preston. . . 



Isaac How. . 
Benjamin Adams. 
Isaac How. 
James Horsley. 
James Horsley. 
James Horsley. 
Isaac Appleton. 



1787. Charles Barrett. . . Isaac Appleton. 

1788. Charles Barrett. . . Isaac Appleton. 



Selectmen. 

William Shattuck, 
Nathaniel Stone, 
Isaac How, 
Charles Barrett. 
Timothy Farrar, 
Isaac Appleton, 
Josiah Brown. 
Isaac Hoar, 
William Shattuck, 
Thomas Heald. 
Isaac How, 
William Shattuck, 
Thomas Heald. 
Isaac How, 
James Chandler, 
Benjamin Adams, 
Isaac Appleton, 
Benjamin Gibbs. 
Isaac Appleton, 
William Shattuck, 
James Chandler. 
Isaac Appleton, 
James Chandler, 
William Shattuck, 
Samuel Whittemore, 
John Warner. 
Isaac How, 
Samuel Whittemore, 
John Brown. 
Benjamin Adams, 
Thomas Heald, 
Josiah Brown. 
Isaac How, 
Josiah Brown, 
Joseph Parker. 
James Horsley, 
Paul Prichard, 
Ephraim Adams, Jr. 
James Horsley, 
Paul Prichard, 
Ephraim Adams, Jr. 
James Horsley, 
Paul Prichard, 
Ephraim Adams, Jr. 
Isaac Appleton, 
Ephraim Adams, Jr. 
William Shattuck, 
Simeon Gould, 
Joseph Parker. 
Isaac Appleton, 
Ephraim Adams, Jr. 
Seth Wheeler. 
Isaac Appleton, 
Ephraim Adams, Jr. 
Seth Wheeler. 



268 



MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 



Year. Representatives. 

1789. Charles Barrett. . . 

1790. Charles Barrett. . . 

1791. Charles Barrett. . . 

1792. Charles Barrett. . . 

1793. Charles Barrett. . . 

1794. Jeremiah Prichard. . 

1795. Jeremiah Prichard. . 

1796. Charles Barrett. . . 

1797. Jeremiah Prichard. . 

1798. Charles Barrett. . . 

1799. Jeremiah Prichard. . 

1800. Jeremiah Prichard. . 

1801. Ebenezer Champney. 

1802. Jeremiah Prichard. . 

1803. Noah Bartlett. . . 

1804. Noah Bartlett. . . 

1805. Noah Bartlett. . . 

1806. Noah Bartlett. . . 

1807. Noah Bartlett. . . 



Town Clerks. 
Isaac Appleton. . 

Isaac Appleton. . 

Jeremiah Prichard. 

Jeremiah Prichard. 

Jeremiah Prichard. 

Jeremiah Prichard. 

John Hubbard. . 

Jeremiah Prichard. 

Jeremiah Prichard. 

Seth Wheeler. 

Noah Bartlett. 

Noah Bartlett. 

Noah Bartlett. 

John Preston. . 

John Preston. . 

John Preston. . 

John Preston. . 

John Preston. . 

John Preston. . 



Selectmen. 

Isaac Appleton, 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler. 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler, 
John Ptatt. 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheiler, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Jeremiiih Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Ephraim Adams, 
Seth Wheeler, 
John Pratt. 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Jeremiah Prichard, 
Seth Wheeler, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Seth Wheeler, 
Noah Bartlett, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Seth Wheeler, 
Noah Bartlett, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, Jr. 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
John Preston. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Ephraim Adams. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Isaac Adams. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Benjamin Champney. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Elijah Newell. 



TOWN OFFICERS. 



269 



Vear. 
1808. 



Selectmen. 
Noah Bartlett. 



Town Clerks 
John Preston. . 



1809. Noah Bartlett. . . John Preston. 

1810. Isaiah Kidder. . . John Preston. 

1811. Samuel Batchelder. . John Preston, 

1812. Samuel Batchelder. . John Preston, 

1813. Samuel Batchelder. . John Preston. 



1824. 
1825. 
1826. 



1814. 


Samuel Batchelder. . 


John Preston. . . 


1815. 


Samuel Batchelder. . 


John Preston. . . 


1816. 


Samuel Batchelder. . 


John Preston. 


1817. 


N. D. Gould. . . . 


John Preston. 


1818. 


N. D. Gould. . . . 


Samuel Batchelder. 


1819. 


Charles Barrett. . . 


Samuel Batchelder 


1820. 


N. D. Gould. . . . 


Samuel Batchelder. 


1821. 


Charles Barrett. . . 


Samuel Batchelder. 


1822. 


Charles Barrett. . . 


Samuel Batchelder 



1823. Stephen Wheeler. . Samuel Batchelder. 



Stephen Wheeler. 



E. H. Farrar. . . 



Charles Barrett. . . E. H. Farrar. . . 
Charles Barrett. . . E. H. Farrar. . . 



Representatives. 

Noah Bartlett, 
Supply Wilson, 
Elijiih Newell. 
Noah Bartlett, 
Benjamin Chanipney, 
N. D. Gould. 
Nathaniel D. Gould, 
'J iinothy Fox, 
Aaron Brown. 
N. D. Gould. 
Benjamin Chanipney, 
Aaron Brown. 
N. D. Gould, 
Nathan Robbins, 
Aaron Brown. 
John Preston, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Jeremiah Prichard, Jr. 
N. D. Gould, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Jeremiah Prichard, Jr. 
N. D. Gould, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Jeremiah Prichard, Jr. 
N. D. Gould, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Benjamin Chanipney. 
Samuel Batchelder, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Benjamin Champney. 
Samuel Batchelder, 
Timothy Fox, Jr. 
Benjamin Champney. 
Abner Brown, 
Stephen Wheeler, 
Isaac Adams. 
Timothy Fox, 
Benjamin Champney, 
Isaac Adams. 
Timothy Fox, 
Benjamin Champney, 
Isaac Adams. 
Timothy Fox, 
Abner Brown, 
Isaac Adams. 
Stephen Wheeler, 
Abner Brown, 
Isaac Adams. 
Stephen Wheeler, 
Peter Felt, 
Isaac Adams. 
Joseph Bairett, 
Peter Felt, 
John P. Robbins. 
Joseph Barrett, 
Stephen Wheeler, 
Daniel Jefts. 



270 



MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 



Year. Representatives. 

1827. Stephen Wheeler. . 

1828. Stephen Wheeler. . 

1829. Stephen Wheeler. . 

1830. Charles Barrett. . . 

1831. George F. Farley. . 

1832. Stephen Wheeler. . 

1833. John Preston. . . . 

1834. Seth King. , . . 

1835. Seth King. . . . 

1836. Stephen Wheeler. . 

1837. Seth King. . . . 

1838. John Preston. . . . 

1839. Jeremiah Smith. . . 

1840. Jeremiah Smith. . . 



Town Clerks 
E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

Jeremiah Smith. 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

E. H. Farrar. . 

John Gould, Jr. 

John Gould, Jr. 

John Gould, Jr. 



Selectmen. 

Joseph Barrett, 

Stephen Wheeler, 

Isaac Adams. 

Joseph Barrett, 

Peter Felt, 

Isaac Adams. 

Joseph Barrett, 

Peter Felt, 

Isaac Adams. 

Stephen Wheeler, 

Jeremiah Smith, 

Daniel Jefts. 

Stephen Wheeler, 

Jeremiah Smith, 

Daniel Jefts. 

Stephen Wheeler, 

Jeremiah Smith, 

Daniel Jefts. 

Stephen Wheeler, 
Jeremiah Smith, 
Silas Wheeler. 
Stephen Wheeler, 
Jeremiah Smith, 
Daniel Jefts. 
Stephen Wheeler, 
Jeremiah Smith, 

Daniel Jefts. 
John Preston, 
Castalio Hosmer, 
Stephen Thayer. 
John Preston, 
Castalio Hosmer, 
John P. Houghton. 
Jeremiah Smith, 
Andrew Conant, 
Chauncy Perry. 
Jeremiah Smith, 
Andrew Conant, 
Chauncy Perry. 
Jeremiah Smith, 
Stephen Wheeler, 
James Chandler. 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 271 



The following is an attempt to exhibit the persons who set- 
tled, and have subsequently resided upon the several lots in 
the town. For a great majority of them, the task is not diffi- 
cult ; but for others, the removals have been so numerous and 
frequent, that the attempt to render a full list, or to avoid er- 
rors would be hopeless. We think it will be found that, in such 
cases, such persons as are named resided on the lots mention- 
ed, or in the immediate vicinity. Perhaps it would have been 
more clear if we had arranged the list by following along the 
different roads ; but on considering that the roads have been 
repeatedly changed, and are liable to frequent changes hereaf- 
ter, it was thought better to follow the original plotting of the 
town, which in many cases still corresponds with the present 
limitation of the farms. In the northern and eastern parts 
seldom has more than one family located on a lot ; in the 
southern and western parts, however, two persons frequently 
settled on the same lot. The names of the original settlers of 
the lots, as far as they are now remembered, also those who 
erected the buildings, are printed in italics, and the date of 
their settlement is sometimes given. In other cases the death 
of the person is given ; and in others, some period when he is 
known to have resided there. Where two or more houses 
have been built on the same lot, they are indicated by the let- 
ters a, 6, c. Lots which have been abandoned as places of 
residence are preceded by a cipher (°). Those inclosed in 
brackets are the names of persons whose dwelling is not pre- 
cisely known, but who resided somewhere in the vicinity. In 
the general list, for the lots on which villages now exist, we 
have given the names of the first occupants with their direct 
successors, and have given the present villages separately. 
The numbers refer to those on the map of the town. 

North Division — North of the old hirying-ground, and East of 
the Mountains. 

Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, and parts of 5, 10, 15, 16, 
cut off by Mason Line. 
No. 9. ° Daniel Stratton, 1765 — 32, Daniel Stratton Jr., Jere- 
miah Stratton, Luke Cutter, d. 1845. 



272 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

No. 10. Elijah Mansfield, (mostly in Mason.) 

13. Meadow below High Bridge. 

14. Abba Severance, (1767,) D. Mansfield, d. IS 16, Israel 

Mansfield, d. 1825, S. W. Mansfield, (1850.) 

,^' [ ° Edmund Towne, — Jefts. 

17. Adams lot, north of Forge. 

18. Peter Fletcher, (1757,) Geo. Start, Paul Prichard(1771), 

d. 1785 ; William Prichard; Stephen Prichard ; Dan- 
iel Jefts, (1850.) 
18. Archibald White ; Amos Prichard, d. 1782 ; William 
Prichard; Thomas Read, d. 1817; — Conant; — 
Barrett ; — Hayden ; Alfred Tenney, 1850. 

20. Ministry Lot. 

21. Ephraim and Benjamin Adams, (1742); Quincy Adams ; 

Francis Cragin ; Joseph Cragin ; Sewall Hosmer ; 
Castalio Hosmer; — Bruce, (1850.) 

22. ° Benjamin Knoivlton, (1755); Jonas Jones ; Stephen 

Jones ; Samuel Chickering. 
* Joh7i linoiolton ; Abner Chickering, d. 1841 ; Ezra 
Woods; Sewall O. Chandler, (1850.) 

23. Ezra Toicne, {ilbQ); Ezra Towne, Jr.; Ebenezer Rich- 

ardson, d. 1817; Tho. Richardson ; Barnard Tenney, 
1850. 

24. " William Upton, 1770. 

25. Benjamin Adams, (1750) ; Maj. Benj. Adams, d. 1825; 

Jonathan J. Bacon ; B. A. Clark, (1850.) 

26. Jonathan Stevens ; William Start, d. 1791 ; Stephen 

Prichard ; Jotham Hoar; Jona. Hartshorn, d. 1812; 
David Fisk ; Moses Carleton ; Andrew Wilson ; Tho. 
Richardson ; Mark Farrar, (1850.) 

27. ° Benjamin Proctor, (1757); Joseph Proctor ; Jonas 

Davis. 

28. Natha7i Cutter ; Joseph Cutter ; Peter Fletcher ; — 

Stevens ; Oliver Scripture ; Isaac Wilson ; James 
Bride ; Daniel Felt. 

29. Unoccupied. 

30. Ebenezer Brown, d. 1813 ; Daniel Spaulding, d. 1839. 

31. Roger's Pasture. John Brown in vicinity. 

32. John Cutter, d. 1775 ; Isaac Kimball ; Supply Wilson, 

d. 1835 ; John Wibon ; Edward Wilson ('l850.) 

33. Abijah Foster, (1748); Joseph Bates, (1750); David 

Hills, (1772) ; J. F. Hills ; John T. Stephens. 

34. Benjamin King, (1755); Abijah Smith (1764-86); 

Elijah Smith ; — Winn; Abijah Smith, 1820 ; She- 
buel Shattuck d. 1846, George Nicholas ; Erastus 
Austin. 

35. Joseph Stevens, (1754-72) ; Geo. Start; 0. Scripture; 

Supply W^ilson, Jr. (1850) ; Matthias Wilson (1850.) 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 273 

No. 36. ° Stephen Parker, [John Brown.] 

37. « Oliver Proctor ; Rev. Steph. Farrar ; Benja. Adams ; 

C. Page ; M. Wyman ; S. Burnham ; F. Shattuck. 

* Stephen Farrar, Jr ; Rev. S. Farrar ; E. H. Farrar, &c. 
" Peter Warren ; Arthur Dennis ; Isaac Preston ; Capt. 

Dinsmore; Stephen Farrar, Jr. ; Abijah Smith ; Fran- 
cis Sawyer ; John Walker. (Farrar's Mill.) 
<* Sumner Prichard, in old Starch Factory building. 

38. a Francis Appleton, d. 1816 ; John Appleton ; George 

Gibson; Castalio Hosmer ; Edward Hooper. 
b — Kemp. 

39. vacant, F. Appleton lot. 

40. - Simeon Gould, (1758-1827.) 

* John Gould, Reuben K. Gould (1850). 
" — Hayden. 

41. Isaac Appleton, 1753-1806 ; Silas Lawrence ; Benjamin 

Davis ; Isaac Appleton, Jr.; Joseph Barrett ; Edward 
F. Preston, (1850.) 

42. vacant. Isaac and Francis Appleton, meadow and 

woods. 

43. Nathaniel Gould, d. 1808 ; N. D. Gould, 1816 ; Wm. 

Locke ; John Clark ; Silas Davis ; Daniel Clark ; 
Jeremiah Prichard ; W. W. Prichard (1850). 

44. Joseph Parker, {\1%S); Joseph Baker (1778) ; Joseph 

and Moody Stickney ; Oliver Boynton ; Amos Hatch, 
1850. 

45. - Abijah Foster (1750) ; Tho. Fletcher, (1755) ; Tho. 

Fletcher, d. 1813; Silas Davis. 

* Josiah Fletcher; Joseph Davis (1850.) 
" James Davis (1850.) 

46. " Reuben Kidder, d. 1793 ; Simeon Stetson; Isaiah Kid- 

der, d. 1811 ; James Spaulding ; S. Burnham; Jon- 
athan Webster ; Leonard Hastings ; Andrew Wil- 
lard, (1850.) 

* Caesar. 

c Kendall Briant ; Edm. Briant, 1785 ; Daniel Swain ; 
Elijah Morse ; Josiah Fisk ; David More ; Edward 
Preston; Oliver Barrett, (1850.) 

47. Vacant. Kidder and Gould, wood lot. 

48. Vacant. Rogers' pasture — belonging to Stickney farm. 

49. Ichabod How, (1759.) John Cutter, d. 1771, Nathan 

Cutter, d. 1808, Robert Nicholas. 

50. Samuel Perham, Earl Boynton. 

51. Joel Wheelock, Jonas Jones, Artemas Holt, Earl Boyn- 

ton, — Hastings. 

52. -^ Isaac Clark, 1770. 

53. and 54. vacant, 

35 



274 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

No. 55. ° " Bunker Clark, Joel Wheelock, Jr., James Jaquith, Ben- 
jamin Davis (1814), Jonathan Spauldingf, d. 1823. 

* Archibald White, Silas Richardson, d. 1775, Ithamar 

Wheelock, Samuel Kendall, George Kendall, Arte- 
mas Fisk, Shebuel Shattuck, George Brown, d. 1846, 
John Anderson. 

56. Vacant pasture. 

57. « Isaac Hoio, Joseph How (1800,) S. C. Wheeler. 

* New brick house, Wilson Wheeler. 

58. Thomas Brown, Stephen Davis, Timothy Stearns, Aa- 

ron Blodget, James Davis, Charles Goddard, 1850. 

59. Kidder Mountain. 60. ° Adam Gould. 

61. " Ephraim Adams, Jr., 1770-1825, Isaac Adams, d. 1849, 

Henry Adams (1850.) 

* ° William Spear, d. 1805, Joseph Spear, d. 1818. 

' Samuel Batchelder (1801-13), Moody Adams, Silas 
Wheeler, William Mansur, Isaac Spaulding. 

62. " Josiah Broion (1775), Abner Brown, d. 1824. 

63. ° Josiah Walton, Josiah Walton, Jr. 

64. Kidder Mountain. 



South Ranges. — Sixteen Ranges, of four farms each, South of the 

old Burying Ground. 
R. I. 1. Vacant. 

2. Ebenezer Bullard, d. 1768, Joseph Bullard, Charles 

Barrett, Enos Knights, Elijah Knights, Ephraim 
Spoor, d. 1849, John Emery, Stillmau Stratton 
(1850). 

3. and 4. Pasture lots, including Hoar Pond. 
R. II. 1. " Moses Tucker, Nathan Woolson. 

* Charles Herrick, d. 1827. 

2. Joseph Bullard, James Barr, Reuben Russell. 

3. Jonathan Davis, d. 1819. Solomon Davis. 

4. Horsley pasture. 

R. III. 1. Chandler lot, east of the High Bridge. 

2. Vacant. Danforth, 1750 ; Conant, 1764 ;— Wheeler ; 

W. Hewett, 1775; N. Williams ; Solomon Wheat; 
Jonas Wheeler, 1750; (three old cellars.) 

3. ° Moses Tucker, Jr., d. 1792. 

4. ° Eben Heald. 

R. IV. 1. John Chandler (1751-67) ; Eleazer Cummings, d. 1815; 
Charles Cummings ; Win. Prichard ; Asa Prichard. 

2. Jonas Woolson, 1743-90; J. Woolson, Jr., d. 1804; 

Daniel Brooks ; Jesse Holton ; Wm. Lock ; Wm. 
Brooks; John Emery; James Spaulding, (1850.) 

3. ° Vacant. — Wheeler, 1750. 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 275 

R. IV. 4. Sajmiel Kinney (1764); Jona. Kinney ; Nathaniel 
Williams; Levi Bailey; Zaccheus Walker; Dan- 
forth Walker; Shebuel Shattuck ; Samuel Gush- 
ing, 1850. 

R. v. 1. " Nathaniel Prentiss, Daniel Brooks, Solomon Brooks. 

* Leojiard Cragin, Abigail Kidder. 

2. Benjamin Hoar, 1742, d. 1799, Jotham Hoar, Jonas 

C. Champney, d. 1824, Jeremiah Prichard, John 
Emery, (1850.) 

3. Meadow south of the preceding. Moors Farwell, 

Reuben Nutting, (1850.) 

4. Jesse Fletcher (1755), Simeon Fletcher, d. 1773, 

John Wilkins, Jeremiah Prichard, Sen., David 
Wilkins, Moses Davis, Dr. S. Gibson. 
R. VI. 1. " " Moses Tucker, Jr., John Dutton. 

* Ebenezer Champney, E. Champney Jr., John P. 

Houghton, William Prichard. 
" Benja?nin Champney, — Parker, William Lock, Levi 
Houghton, John Kidder. 

2. Vacant. Champney lot. 

3. Pelatiah Whittemore, d. 1783, Josiah Bacheller, 

James Horsely, Josiah Wilkins, d. 1834, Moses 
Wilkins, (1850.) 

4. [Dr. Frederic Jones, John Champney, Daniel Foster, 

Charles Burgess, Aaron Barton.] 
' Eleazer Rhoades, James Spaulding, Hepsy Kidder, 
Joseph A. Gibson. 
R.VII. 1. Judge Farrar's Pasture. 

2. °° Benjamin Safford (1755), father and son. 
' Matthias Wilson, — Reed (1850.) 

3. " John Wilkins, John Shattuck (1796), d. 1816, J. 

Shattuck, Jr., Dan'l Farwell, d. 1825, Geo. Wil- 
lard, (1850.) 
h Danforth Walker. 

4. " Benjamin Prichard, S. Manning. 

' John Everett, George Gibson, Dr. Henry Gibson, C. 
S. Gibson, 1850. 
R. VIII. 1. James Farrar, d. 1767, Timothy Farrar, 1770-1819, 
Thomas Davis, Jesse Holton, Joel Gould (1850). 

2. « Ezra Kimball, Samuel Dutton, Dr. Moors Farwell, 

Timothy Wheelock. 

* Abel Shattuck, Silas Cragin. 

3. " John Stowell, d. 1826, John Prichard, W. Emery, 

1850. 

* John Putnam, Oliver Ormsby, Joel Davis, John Clark, 

James Spaulding. 

4. John Brooks, John Going (or Gowing), d. 1805, John 

Going, Jr., d. 1831, Noah Going, (1850.) 



276 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

R IX. 1. Joseph Kidder, S. Heywood, E. Champney, G, F. 
Farley, John Preston. The village south of the 
centre line to graveyard. 

2. " Abijah Foster, (1755), Daniel Foster, Ephraim Fos- 

\ter, d. 1780, John Fletcher. 

* Jonathan Twiss, Widow Prichard, Elijah Morse. 

John Wilkins, C. Campbell, 
c Benjamin Prichard, James Spaulding, d. 1832, 

3. Four vacant. East of Mill village. 
K. X. 1. Vacant. Flat Pasture. 

2. William Hodgkins, d. 1804, Widow Mansfield, John 

Putnam, Rev. Isaac R. Barbour, James Bancroft 
(1850.) 

3. ° Zechariah Adams (1745). North part. 

Isaac Appleton, middle part. Jonas Nutting, (1850.) 

Thomas Adams, Sam'l Cummings, — Cornish, Eben'r 

Fletcher, Edmund Briant, d. 1786, Peter Felt, 

Joseph Knowlton (1850), Jeremiah Smith (1850.) 

4. * Hannah Briant, Sally Jones, Nathan Hale, — Town, 

(1850.) 

c Cummings Fletcher, Hiram Nutting, Rogers Ryan. 

<* Samuel Foster, d. 1780, William Burrows, James 
Spaulding, Dexter Fletcher, James Kennedy, Jon- 
athan Taylor. 

' ° Joseph Fellows (1772), Eben'r Jones, Elisha Jones. 

/ Stephen Sylvester. 

s Merrick Sjdvester, d. 1850. 

'' — Eaton. 

' Store of James Lock, — Hildreth, — Lewis Eppes, 
Curtis Shed, Russell Farwell, — Hildreth. 

* James Chandler, Thomas Davis. 
^ Richard Davis. 

" Samuel Taylor. 
" Charles Taylor. 
R. XI. 1. "^ " John Walker, John Harkness, 1775. North part. 
^ * Andreio Spalding, Retire Bacon, — Farr (south 
part.) 

2. Reuben Taylor, d. 1813, Zebedee Taylor, d. 1844, 

R. Taylor (1850.) 

3. Thomas Spalding, d. 1815, Stephen Spaulding, Dan- 

iel Clark, Stephen Piper, Oilman Spaulding, Phin- 
ehas Carpenter, Wid. Spaulding, Thomas Adams. 
4:. '^ D. Nevins (1756), Samuel Parker, (1765), William 
Shattuck, d. 1792, Amos Whittemore, (1812.) 
[Eleazer Cummings in vicinity.] 




OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 277 

R. XII. 1. " Joseph Briant, Ephraim Fairbanks, William Taylor. 
^ Samuel Batchelder, Thayer & Wood, Benja. Davis. 
" Leonard Stearns, — Lawrence, Amos Potter. 
^ ^ Nath'l Melvin, Daniel Foster, Odoardo Thomas, 
John Cutter, d. 1813. 

2, Amos Taylor, Nathan Cutter, d. 1808, Oliver Wright, 

B. Buckman, Aaron Buckman (1850.) 

3, Robert Crosby (1759), Josiah Crosby, Joseph Parker, 

Timothy Fox, T. Fox, Jr., George Fox, Ephraim 
Fox. 

4, Stephen Adams, Roger Chandler, Timothy Wheelock, 

Joseph Parker, Wm. Lock, Wm. Lock, Jr., James 
Chandler (1850.) 
b Si)neo7i Hildretk, d. 1800. 

"^ ° — Underwood, Joseph Parker, Joseph Tenney, Jr., 
Daniel Clark. 
R. XIII. 1. " Francis Fletcher, Richard Wheeler. 

'^ ' Wm. Burrows, d. 1808, Sarah Burrows, Jonas Dutton. 

2. Samuel Bartlett (1770), Noah Bartlett, Danforth 

Walker, Joseph Brown, Richard Wheeler (1850.) 

3. Vacant, 0. Thomas, Jesse Walker, Thomas Wright, 

(1804), W. Emerson. 

4. Joseph Parker, Jr., d. 1800, Zechariah Parker, Tim- 

othy Carleton, d. 1847, — Symonds, 1850. 
° Benjamin Wheat (1770), Levi Farr, d. 1789. 
R. XIV. 1. <* « Daniel Clary (1762), d. 1789. 

* Wm. Clary, Sam'l Wheeler, Geo. Wheeler, (1850.) 

2. Nath'l Carleton, 1762, — Sprague, Phinehas Pratt. 

3. Vacant. 

4. Stephen Hildreth, d. 1800, James Hildreth, d. 1844, 

Daniel Farwell. 
R. XV. 1. '^ Aaron Kidder, d. 1769, Rachel Kidder, d. 1815, Lucy 
Johnson, d. 1825. 

2. Samuel Brown (1770), J. Tidder, Joseph Giles, Dan- 

iel Giles, d. 1813, Spaulding Boynton, Gilman 
Blanchard. 

3. " John Pratt, d. 1799, John Pratt, Jr., Nathan Rob- 

bins, John P. Robbins. Poor House. 

* Isaac Farwell, Richard Wheeler, Richard Wheeler, 

Jr., E. Nutting. 
' Timothy Farwell, Joseph Eaton, J. Eaton, Jr., Wm. 
Taylor, Russell Farwell. 

4. Vacant. 

R. XVI, 1. Ephraim Adams, (see No. 61, N. Div.) 
2, Vacant, Mountain. No. 3, Pratt Pond. 
4. Vacant. Mountain. 



278 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 



After Lots. A. — Two Ranges of Farms along the South line. 

No. 65. Vacant. 66. Aaron Breed. 67. Vacant. 

68. Abel Hildreth, Nathan Estabrooks, — Stanton, 1S50. 

69. Seth Wheeler, Abijah Smith, Thomas Danforth, Moses 

Davis, David Wilkins, Elhanan Preston, — Taylor, 
Benjamin Wilson (1830.) 

70. Abel Miles, d. 1814, Abel Mansfield, George Ramsdell, 

1850. 

71. ° Col. Benjamin Gibbs (1670 to 1805.) 

72. Hunt's Pasture. Barret's Pasture, (1777.) 

73. Samuel Holden, (1764), Reuben and Samuel Holden, 

Edward Holden. 

74. ** William Burroivs. Fletcher Pasture. 

75. Holden Meadow. 

76. a. Eleazer Cummings (1762-7), David Rumrill, John 

Knowlton, d. 1838, — Maxwell, Ira Smith. 

* Ebenezer Newell (1780), Onesimus Newell, d. 1833, 

Samuel Newell, Seth Newell, Nathan Cummins, 
Isaac Stearns 1850. 

77. Andrew Conn (1768), Elijah Newell, — Preston, — 

Ramsdell, Benjamin Lovett 1850. 

78. John Jaquith, d. 1805, James Jaquith, Abijah Rice, 

(1809), B. C. Pillsbury (1850.) 

79. Vacant. 

80. John Breed, Jr., d. 1807, Joel Foster, Joseph Cragin, 

Daniel Ramsdell (1850.) 

81. Benjamin Eaton, Elias Whitcomb, Cyrus Coleman. 

82. John Breed, d. 1780, Allen Breed, d. 1806, Enoch 

Breed 1811, Abijah Wetherbee, — Eppes, — Marble, 
L. Chandler (1850.) 

83. Vacant. 

84. Stephen Adams (1750), Simeon Blanchard, d. 1805, 

Simeon Blanchard, Jr., d. 1822, William Blanchard 
(1850.) 

85. " Abraham and Jesse Carleton (1765), Jonas Stone, Na- 

than Stone. 

86. Joseph Pollard (1750-86), John Wheeler, — Hills, 

(1850.) 

87. Wm. Paris (1771), Z. Conant, Andrew Conant, Sam- 

uel Cushing, Thomas Davis. 

* ° Levi Farr, d. 1789, Bennett Whitman. 
' Nathaniel Farr. 

88. Thomas Emerson, Jonathan Taylor, William Wheeler. 

89. « Joseph Tenney, 1774-1843. 

90. Thomas Emerson, Asa Emerson, Sam'l Fletcher, 1778. 

91. Governor's Hill. 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 279 

No. 92. Samuel Wheeler 1790, Jonas Emerson, Daniel Emer 
son, Lemuel Sylvester, Louis Wheeler. 
93. Vacant. Governor's Hill. 
94 _ Sawtell, — Kendall 1850. 

95. Asa Brown, William Harris, O. Harris, L. W. Harris, 

1850'. 
° Thomas Br 01071, William Harris, Addy Jaquith. 

96. School lot. 

97. Thaddeus Taylor, Samuel Taylor, — Maxwell 1850, 

— Dudley, Stephen Brooks, D. Brooks, Walton 
Brooks. 

B. — Lots West of the Mountain. 

174, 175. Wilder's Village. 

« Peter Wilder, d. 1841, J. P. Wilder (1850.) 

* John B. Wilder, formerly the store of Thomas Wilder. 
" Thomas Wilder, Lot Nichols, Oilman Gould, James 

Bancroft. Charles Walton (1850.) 
^ Thomas Wilder, Abijah Wetherbee, d. 1835, Levi Jos- 
lin, J. P. Wilder, G. B. Gardner, Luke Crane, David 
Wilson, — Smith, — Watkins. 

• J. P. Wilder, d. 1842, John S. Wilson, Willard Rob- 

bins, G. S. Nicholas, George Rolf. 
/ Paul Moors. 176, 177, 178 vacant. 

184. Josiah Reed. 185 vacant. 143, 144, 145 vacant. 
146. Gates' Mills. 147, 148, 183, 179 vacant. 

140. — Robertson, Daniel Walker, Daniel Walton, George 

Stratton (1850.) 

141, 142, 149, 150 vacant. 

151. Timothy Stearns (1767), B. Williams, B. B. Williams, 

Silas Wheeler, Benjamin Cram, Luke Crane, Joseph 
Heywood 1850. 
° Nathan Merriam. 

137. Stratton's lot. 

138. Henrij Fletcher, D. Rumrill. 139. Vacant. 

152. Henry Fletcher, Jesse Walker, Ezra Carr (1850), 

— Emerson, John Walker, David E. Adams 1850. 

153. 154 vacant. 

181. John Brown, Aaron Brown, Hermon Brown. 
134. ° N. Walton. 135. ° Reuben Fletcher 1771. 

136. " Amos Fletcher 1771. 155, 156, 157, 180 vacant, 
131. D. Walker, E. Carr. 132, 133, 158, 159 vacant. 
160. ° Daniel Clary. 

128. — Carey, Simeon Ide, — Spalding, — Bartlett, 0. Cra- 
gin. 129, 130, 161, 162, 165 vacant. 

125. — Converse, Ebenezer Converse. Carr's Mill. 

126. — Godding, Ariel Godding. 127, 163, 164, 166 vacant. 
All the remainder, beyond the Mountain, vacant. 



280 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 



C. — Lots on the Eastern boundary. 

No. 186. " Timothy Ileald 1752, Josiah Heald (1753), Stephen 
Pierce, d. 1819, Joseph Pierce 1850. 

'' Charles Barrett, John Butman, Seth Newell, Elisha 
Davis 1850. 

" Jonas Wheeler 1770. 
No. 5. Seth Wheeler 1755, d. 1820, Stephen Wheeler, Wil- 
liam Prichard, Jr. 

» Aaron Wheeler, d. 1806. 

i Seth Wheelvr, Silas Wheeler, Stephen Wheeler, — 
Walker, Stephen D. Wheeler 1850. 

New laid out. A. — Range of 7iarrow Lots between the Ranges 
just mentioned and the South Division — irregularly numbered. 

No. 24. On Mason line, vacant. 

28. Nathan Weston, A. Hosmer, W. Lee. 

29. ° Nathan Hosmer. 

2. Josiah Davis, d. 1815, Cyrus Davis, Moses Davis, Lu- 
ther Robbins. 
44. John Melvin, Nathaniel Melvin (1770), Ezekiel Russell, 
d. 1813, Solomon Russell 1850, Lysander E. Russell. 
187. Thomas Heald, d. 1805, Solomon Estabrook, Samuel 
Estabrook, Job Davis, — Davis (1850.) 
12. «■ Thovias Heald, James Chandler, Francis Shattuck, 
Charles Shattuck, — Rice, George Ramsdell, Jr. 
(1850). 

* Samuel Whittemore, Jr., Samuel Whittemore, 3d., 

— Baker, — How, Washington Shipley, (1850.) 
1. Samuel Whittemore, d. 1812, Silas Bigelow, d. 1797, 
Zach. Walker, Amos Ramsdell (1850.) 
16. Vacant. Whittemore Hill. 
7. Robert Campbell, d. 1791, Caleb Campbell, d. 1800, 
Joseph Newell, Jeremiah Kinsman, Jesse Stearns, 
Isaac C. Stearns. No. 11. Vacant. 

56. Aaron Chamberlain, d. 1799, A. Chamberlain, (1803.) 

C. Perry (1850.) 
60. Joseph Collins, Nathan Collins. 

64. Joseph Pollard, d. 1786, James Barr, d. 1829, William 
Lock, George Barr, William Wheeler (1850.) 
Xin. 2. " Isaac Flagg, Joseph Warren, — Sprague, Elisha Childs, 
Stillman Gibson, Nathan Page, Luther Page. 

* James Chandler 1824, Roger Chandler, d. 1845, Nathan 

Page (1850.) No. 10. Vacant. 

187. Peter Shattuck (1780), James Preston, Joseph Tenney. 
98. Simeon Wright (1765), John Nutting, (1850.) 
'^ John Scott (1770.) 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 281 

No. 99. ° Sampson and William Tcnney. 

100, " John Walker, d. 1786, Thomas Wetherbee, Luther 
Wetherbee, Rogers Ryan, [Stephen Adams, Jr., 
Abraham Bennett, Oliver Wright.] 
* ** John Binney, d. 1784, John Binney, Jr. 
102. Pond. 103, 104 and 105 vacant — over the mountain. 
990. ° Sampson Tenny, William Tenney. / 

106. James Preston, Isaac Preston, Richard Wheeler. J 

107, 108 and 109, pastures. 

B. — New laid out. West of North Division. 

63. ° — Hildreth. 

69, 70. Vacant. Adams & Brown lots. 

11. ° Silas Davis. 72. Vacant. 

Factory Villages. A. — High Bridge. 

McGowan (1850.) 

— Adams. 

White & Fitts (store). 

Charles Stearns. 

Georare Oliver, James Spaulding, Wm. Mansur, — Brown 
(1850.) 

Charles Stearns, d. 1818. 

James Sanderson, John Sanderson. 

George Sanders (tin shop), Wm. Matthews. 

Milliner's shop and dwelling. 

Eleazer Cummings, Jacob Ames, — Webber. 

James Sanderson, Isaac Russell. 

James Sanderson, d. 1830, Thomas Sanderson. 

Brown, Boarding-house. 

Dyehouse, Thomas Ryan, — Cassin. 

James 0. Reed, (store.) 

Brooks Shattuck. 

Robert Fitts, Christopher Whitney, 

Boarding Houses (five) to Souhegan Factory. 

Silas Foster, store and house, Daniel Walker. 

Tavern, E. Mansur, — Dinsmore, — Cummings, W. Man- 
sur. 

Francis P. Prichard, d. 1850. 

B.—Broio7i's Mills. 

Boarding-houses, Nos. 1, 2, 3. 

Seth Nason, Horace Brown, Eleazer Brown. 

C. — Mou7itain Mills. 

Silas Wheeler, James Bliss, John P. Clark. 
Cyrus Baldwin, W. W. Johnson, George Keyes, — Jefts, 
36 



282 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

Gilman Ames. 

° Jonathan Warner, L. Cragin, Gilman Ames. 

James W. Bliss. 

Gates Chapman. 

Nathaniel Prentice, Daniel Brooks, Sol. Brooks, John 

Ayres, John Clark, Hiram Smith. 
(Store), W. W. Johnson, C. Barrett. 
(Bank), Nathaniel Barrett. 
(Livery stable), John P. Clark. 
Charles Barrett, Jr., — Chandler, J. P. Clark. 
Charles Wiofht, — FlasfSf. 
William Ainsworth. 
John Boodry, Henry Johnson. 

— Tufts. 

(Boarding-houses, six double houses.) 
Orlando Marshall. 
Cyrus Merrill. 

— Phelps. 
N. Barrett. 
Eoby Fletcher. 
Sukey Dady. 

Central Village. 

A. — The Turnpike. 
Charles Bateman, E. P. Edwards, Josiah Walton, Jr. 
Stephen Thayer (Match Factory.) 
Sampson Fletcher, Paul Boyce, Andrew Willard. 
Nathan Sanders. 

Nathan and George Sanders (Tin manufactory.) 
E. L. Hammond, Henry Isaacs, d. 1S46, Edward M. Isaacs. 
Stephen Thayer. 

— Brown, Oliver Barrett, Hosea Eaton. 

Steph. Thayer (Bakery), N. H. May, N. Smith, Albert Thayer. 
Charles Bateman (Blacksmith shop), Thomas Kesson, 
Boynton & Stark (Tin manufactory.) 
Stephen Thayer (Store and Segar manufactory.) 
George S. Kitig (Hatters' shop.) 
Moses Brickett (Cigar shop and store.) 
E. L. Hammond, Martin Ames, — Nichols (1850.) 
[Temple Road, Thomas Emery (house), G. & N. Sanders (paint 

shop), Seth Stratton (wheelwright), Thayer & Boynton.] 
Silas Wheeler 1828, Shebuel Shattuck d. 1846. 
Heywood & Wood (store), Heywood & Davis, C. B. Davis, 

Luke Cram. 
Samuel Batchelder (1813), O. P. Eaton, James Spaulding, Silas 

Wheeler, George Sanders. 
John Preston (1802-28), Henry Isaacs, E. P. Edwards. 
Apothecary Shop and Masonic Hall of Dr. Pteston. 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 283 

Charles Hastings. 

John F. Hills, Ephraim Searle d. 1S24, Raymond Stratton d. 

183S, Joseph Appleton d. 1840, Cyrus Da^^is, Jos. Barrett. 
Isaiah Kidder (store), Samuel Batchelder, Newell & Willey 

(tavern), Joseph Newell, J.B.Holt, E.O.Tucker, A. L. 

Merriam, — Bates, E. P. Edwards, John Peabody, Gilman 

Bricket, William Mansur. 
King & Hewes (printers), C. L. Weston (harness maker.) 
Martin Ames (watchmaker.) 
Samuel Batchelder (store 1813), Eaton & Farrar, O. P. Eaton, 

G. M. Champney & Co., Henry Isaacs, E. M. Isaacs. 
John F. Hills (store), Sampson Fletcher d. 1847, David French, 

Charles Davis. 
Two houses, owned by Roby Fletcher. 
Oliver Boynton. 
J. Lawrence. 

Joh?i M. Batchelder d. 1849. 
Moses Brichett. 
Stephen Farrar (house), Benjamin Adams (tavern), Christopher 

Page, Maveric Wyman, Ebenezer How, Stephen Burnham, 

(house), J. Buckman (house and tin ware shop), Francis 

Shattuck. 
° Caleb Farrar (hatter's shop), Samuel Parker, James Tolman. 

B. — From the Turnpike, past the old Academy to the Judge Farrar 

house. 

° Stephen Farrar, Jr., Rev. Stephen Farrar d. 1808, Madam 

Farrar d. 1818, E. H. Farrar d. 1851. 
° Oliver Procter, Jonathan Kimball. 
Academy, Harvey Bacheller, E. How. 
Aaron Brown, Noah Cooke, Elijah Towne, N. Boyter, Hepsy 

Kidder, Capt. Roffe, Moses Brickett, Gilman Brickett, Jas. 

Brickett. 
Israel Cheever d. 1815, Salmon Wilder d. 1823, Cahill. 

— Hastings, "1 

— Boynton, j 

— Wl °' ^ on the Hills Orchard. 

— Haskell, I 
William Lock. J 

Joseph Bacheller d. 1816, Oliver Bacheller d. 1816, Eliza Bach- 
eller, Widow Fisk. 

Noah Cooke, John Hubbard, Dr. John Preston, Isaac Spaulding, 
Stephen F. Preston. 

Samuel Heyioood, Ebenezer Parker, &c. (see R. ix. 1.) 

David Hills, (see N. Div. 34.) 

School-house. 



284 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

Benjamin A. Billings, James Lock, James Taft, Eev. Richard 

Hall, Mrs. Clary. 
Josiah Bacheller (blacksmith shop), Isaiah Williams, Charles 

Bateman, John T. Stephens. 
Site of the Olfice of Ebenezer and Benjamin Champney. 
Benja. Pollard, Widow Tillock d. 1800, Ezra Kimball d. 1825, 

Ira Spafford. 
Rolert Harris, Josiah Rogers, Ephraim Hartwell, James Barr, 

Jeremiah Prichard, Mrs. Laura B. Barr. 
John Preston (1764-1803), Seth King d. 1851, T. F. Preston. 
Seth King (hatter's shop), Stephen F. Preston. 
Jonathan Dix, Samuel Atherton, Isaac B. Farrar, Stephen Prich- 
ard, Elijah Towne, Charles Bateman, E. P. Edwards, Rev. 

Samuel Lee. 
Isaac B. Farrar, Benjamin Champney, John Buckman, G. F. 

Farley, — Parlow. 
James Farrar d. 1768, Timothy Farrar, Thomas Fletcher, Jesse 

Holton, Joel Gould. 

C. — From the Turnpike to the Tanyard. 

Wm. Hassall (wheelwright, formerly the store of E. Hartwell.) 

Nathaniel Hurd, Joseph Newell, 

David French. 

Widow Preston, Charles Nicholas. 

J. A. Weston. 

New Ipswich Bank. 

Union and Odd Fellows Hall, Confectioner, &c. 

Ai Sherwin. 

School-house. 

John Preston, Esq. (office.) 

Baptist Meeting-house. 

Josiah Bacheller d. 1827, Rev. Charles Walker, Martin Ames, 
Peter Clark, John Clark. 

Josiah Bacheller (blacksmith shop.) 

Jeremiah Prichard, Isaac Stone, Ralph Roby, Rev. John Park- 
hurst, Isaiah Cragin. 

Charles Hubbard (saddler's shop), Josiah Bacheller, Jr., Timothy 
Fox, 3d., Eliza Bacheller, Harvey Bacheller. 

Samuel Appleton (store), Appleton & Barrett, Charles & George 
Barrett, Gould & Willey, Gould & Clark, Gould & Fox, 
Fletcher & Barrett, George Barrett, Henry Isaacs, Shattuck 
& Mann, — Murphy (dwelling), — Sullivan. 

D. — From the old Burial Ground to the Meeting-house. 

Charles Porter. 
John Buckman. 
Hiram C. Wilson. • 



1 



OCCUPANTS OF FARMS, HOUSES, ETC. 285 

Moody Adams, Silas Cragiti, John Tolman, Setli Stratton. 

Ralph Roby, Joseph Newell, Lyman Spear. 

Ai Sherwin, Charles Shattuck. 

William and James Lock (store), Joseph Pressey (tin ware), 
Charles Stearns (dwelling), Amos Pierce, Dr. Kittredge. 

Chs. Hubbard (saddler's shop), Hubbard & Willey, Silas Cragin. 

Newton Willey, Levi Cochran, Levi Hodge. 

Mrs. Kesson. 

Charles Barrett d. 180S, Francis Cragin d. 1826, George Bar- 
rett, J. T. Stevens, Dr. L. H. Cochran. 

Charles Barrett, Jr. (1799), Allen Hallett d. 1808, Sam'l Batch- 
elder (1812), Charles Barrett, Jr., George Barrett. 

Centennial Pavilion. 

JohnBarr (1811), Silas Cragin, Newton Willey, James Tolman, 
Stephen Thayer, Moody Adams. 

James Tolman (hatter's shop). Col. Sanderson. 

John Crosby, — Cragin, Jeremiah Prichard d. 1813, J. Prichard, 
Jr., N. D. Gould (1816), Abel Kendall d. 1846, Newton 
Brooks. 

Willard Jefts, — Boy den. 

Mrs. Davis. 

Oliver Whitcomb (blacksmith), Martin Haven (cabinet maker), 
Peter Cloyes, Silas Lawrence, John Gould, Jr., Julia Chick- 
ering (house.) 

Dolly Everett. 

Martin Haven, Peter Cloyes, David Sherwin, John Gould, Jr., 
Seth Newell. 

Daniel Foster, Isaac Spaulding, Josiah Obear d. 1829, Clark H. 
Obear. 

Methodist Meeting-house. ■ ' ^ *'^ 

Hannah and Abigail Bacheller. 

School-house. 

Stephen Adams d. 1801, Josiah Bacheller, Abijah Smith, Abel 
Shattuck, Leonard Brooks, Stedman Houghton. 

Students Hall. 

Charles Shed, Charles R. BuUard. 

New Ipswich Academy. 

John Shattuck, William Newell, Elijah Newell d. 1851. 

Dr. Moors Farwell, Dr. William Gallup, Josiah W. Spaulding. 

Ezra Kimball, Samuel Dutton, Dr. M. Farwell. 

Abel Shattuck, Willard Jefts, Silas Cragin. 

Matthias Wilson, — Reed. 

E. — Road towards Smith's Village. 

Dr. Moors Farwell, Mary Foster, Ebenezer Fletcher, Isaac 

Spaulding. 
Site of Baptist Meeting-house. 



286 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 

Ministerial House. Joseph Cragin. 

Dr. Moors Farwell, Eichard Wheeler d. 1832, Levi Ward d. 

1S36, Job Davis d. 1850. 
Parsonage House (Baptist), John Sawtell, Asaph Merriam. 
Ruth Wetherbee. 



The plan of the village opposite may be of especial interest 
to those who have been long absent from the town ; at any 
rate, it will be curious to look back, fifty or a hundred years 
hence, and see the present state of the village. It has been 
made without any actual survey, but the relative position of 
localities will be sufficiently well recognized. The public 
buildings, houses and shops in 1S50, exclusive of out-build- 
ings, are laid down, with the names of those who occupy or 
improve them. The position of the amphitheatre where the 
centennial services were performed, and of the dinner pavilion 
are also given, as well as a few of the localities where build- 
ings formerly stood. The plan will be more fully understood 
by reference to the list of occupants preceding. The buildings 
in the other villages may be well enough recognized by com- 
paring the large map of the town, and the list of the occupants. 



PART SECOND. 



FAMILY HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 

Perhaps no part of history is read with more interest than Biog- 
raphy ; and when it relates to those for whom we feel any ties 
of affinity or familiar acquaintance, the notices must awaken a much 
deeper feeling. Within a few years a new and increasing interest 
has been given to personal and family History, and many have been 
induced to enter the field, and glean from among musty or decaying 
documents and fading traditions the materials for some memorials 
of their family or friends, who, but for this pious service, would 
soon have been forgotten forever. 

We of New England may well be proud of our ancestors — they 
were truly a peculiar people ; their mission has been a glorious one, 
as they were the main pioneers of what will soon be the greatest 
nation the world has ever seen. Let us, therefore, gather up what 
can yet be found of the materials for the history of our families, 
and place them on record before it is too late. Every family should 
have a book, where all these things should be preserved, for the 
benefit of those who are to come after ; and we venture to say, that 
nothing we shall leave can give a greater satisfaction to posterity. 

Our ancestors, the settlers of this town, with two or three excep- 
tions, were all natives of the counties of Essex and Middlesex, and 
were mostly the great grand-children of those puritans who came to 
Massachusetts during the great emigration from England between 
1630 and 1650. 

The ancient town of Ipswich has generally been considered the 
mother of our place ; but it is a fact, that less than a dozen families 
from there ever settled here ; some of these were among our earli- 
est adventurers. Next came the emigration from Chelmsford and 
Westford, (which had formerly been one town.) These made their 
advent from 1750 to 1756, and were in all about twenty families. 
They were followed by nearly as many from old Concord, particu- 
larly from those parts now Littleton and Lincoln, many of whom 
were drawn hither by the influence of the Rev. Mr. Farrar, and 
came immediately after his settlement. It will thus be seen, that 
to the three ancient towns of Ipswich, Chelmsford and Concord, are 
we mainly indebted for our earliest settlers ; and as their characters 



288 FAMILY HISTORY. 

had been formed where the institutions of religion and moral cult- 
ure had been long established, they were well calculated to be the 
fathers of a new town ; and we doubt if, taken as a whole, a better 
class have ever undertaken the same task. They were a hardy 
and industrious race, and they and their immediate descendants 
have left a name of which we should be proud. As a consequence, 
for a hundred years we have had a reputation as a church-loving, 
law-abiding people. Not a crime of any magnitude has ever been 
committed here, and, so far as our knowledge extends, not a native 
has ever been the inmate of a penitentiary. There is a gratifica- 
tion in recording these things, and we trust the generation now en- 
tering on the stage will feel an incentive to well-doing, so that the 
fair fame of the town may long remain untarnished. 

The following notices are not as full as was at first intended, but 
even these have been collected with much labor and difficulty ; 
they could have been made much more full and interesting. But 
if any persons are disappointed in not finding any account of their 
families or friends, they must remember that they alone are to blame. 
The many cases of indifference that have been manifested when 
inquiries have been made, with the numberless unanswered letters 
requesting information, are a sufficient excuse for any omissions 
or errors that may be found. 

It will be seen that, except in a few cases, no effort has been made 
to trace a continuous pedigree of the families from their emigrant 
ancestors, for the reason that the limits of the work would forbid it. 
It may be thought that the pedigrees of a few families have been 
carried out to an unreasonable extent ; but they are generally those 
which have been the most distinguished, and have exerted the great- 
est influence on the destinies of the town. 

In penning these notices, we can truly say that no invidious 
feelings have governed us ; and we have endeavored, so far as we 
could obtain the materials, to do even justice to all. We trust 
they will be received and read in the same spirit in which they 
were wTitten. 

Our design has been to give some account of every family that 
was here previous to the incorporation of the town in 1762, and to 
notice some of the most prominent who came afterward, down as 
late as ISOO. 



Abbreviations. — Da. for daughter; s. son; b. born ; m. married; d. died; 
w. wife; ch. children. 



THE ADAMS FAMILY. 

Adams, Ephraim, was born at Ipswich. He was the son 
of Thomas Adams, a man of respectabihty and property, who 
resided in that part of the town then called " The Hamlet," 
now forming the town of Hamilton. Some of his descend- 
ants still reside there. He took qnite an interest in the 
affairs of this town under the first Grant, and seems to have 
continued it under the Masonian organization, in which he 
was one of the largest shareholders, having held five rights. 
Ephraim was born in 1724, was a soldier for one campaign in 
the old French war about 1746, and soon after his return to 
his home, was married and removed to this place. This 
was about 1748. He, in company with his brother Benjamin, 
succeeded to two of his father's rights ; and as their names 
are not mentioned in the Masonian charter, they undoubtedly 
held their title under the old grant. They improved two ad- 
jacent lots, one of which is the farm now owned by Mr. Ben- 
jamin A. Clark, and built the house still standing near the old 
Forge. It had flankers around it, as a defence against the 
Indians, which were remaining in 1755, when they applied to 
the Proprietors of the town to repair them, who voted not to 
doit. Mr. Adams was an enterprising and useful man; he 
assisted at the first organization of the church and was elected 
the first deacon, which office he filled faithfully till his death. 

He was noted for his strong original sense and quaint hu- 
mor ; many of his shrewd sayings and playful remarks are 
still remembered by the old inhabitants. He took a leading 
part in the strong measures Avhich preceded the Revolution ; 
and when the war broke out, he did his full duty, both in 
council and in the field. Probably no man in the town did so 
much to procure soldiers and other means for the war. The 
37 



29U FAMILY HISTORY. 

lukewarm and desponding were encouraged by his ardor, and 
the tories and croakers quailed under his satire and humor. 
As he had been a soldier himself, he took great interest for 
them, always using his influence that there should be sup- 
plied comforts for the able-bodied, and more especially for 
the sick. The following anecdote is remembered of his exer- 
tions in their behalf: While representing the town in the Pro- 
vincial Congress, he attempted one day to call their attention 
to procuring suitable clothing for the soldiers during the then 
approaching winter, but without much success. On the fol- 
lowing day he rose in his place with much solemnity, and 
read a resolution, in substance that it was the opinion of that 
body, that the soldiers from their State should have wool grow 
on their backs, to protect them from the cold during winter. 
This drew the attention of the House immediately, and a 
committee was chosen, of which he was the chairman, and 
his wishes were promptly carried into effect. 

During his long residence here, he was, oftener than almost 
any man, elected to the various town offices, where his sound 
and discriminating judgment was very useful. He often serv- 
ed as selectman and representative. He died March 26, 1799, 
aged 72. 

This family was descended from William Adams, who was 
at Cambridge in 1G35, but removed to Ipswich before 1642, 
and had a son John who it is believed was grandfather to the 
Thomas Adams before mentioned. 

Ephraim Adams m. Lydia Kinsman ; ch. Ephraim, b. Dec. 
15, 1749 ; Thomas, b. Sept. 12, 1751 ; Stephen, b. Nov. — , 
1753; Daniel, b. Aug. 24, 1755; Lydia, b. Aug. 16, 1757. 
Mrs. Lydia Adams d. Nov. 3, 1760, ee. 32. He m. Nov. 13, 
1761, Rebecca Locke; ch. John, b. Feb. 29, 1764, d. in the 
army 1781 ; Ebenezer, b. Oct. 2, 1765, Professor at Hanover ; 
Rebecca, b. July 27, 1767 ; James, b. May 20, 1769 ; Betty, 
b. Mar. 13, 1772 ; Quincy, b. Sept. 29, 1775. 

/{? (yriY -^ ^ClCUm4 (brother of the above,) and 

(y probably came here with 

him. They held their property together for many years, and 

lived in a truly fraternal manner; and, although Benjamin 



ADAMS FAMILY. 291 

had not so much energy of character as Ephraim, he had re- 
ceived a better education, and was probably as useful a man 
in town affairs. He was elected a Deacon at the same time 
as his brother, and held the office to the acceptance of the 
church, for over half a century ; he served several years as 
Proprietor's Clerk, and, at the incorporation was elected Town 
Clerk, and often held other offices. He was a soldier in the 

revolution for one or two campaigns. He m. Priscilla ; 

ch. Joseph, b. Feb. 3, 1752, d. Mar. 30, 1752 ; Priscilla, b. 
Mar. 15, 1753; Sarah, b. Feb. 1, 1755, d. Mar. 1755; Benja- 
min, b. Feb. 7, 1756, d. 1758 ; Mary, b. Mar. 5, 1756 ; Debo- 
rah, b. June 6, 1760, d. an infant; Hannah, b. Aug. 22, 1761 ; 
Benjamin, b. Sept. 9, 1763 ; Joseph, b. Dec. 13, 1765 ; Sarah, 
b. Aug. 10, 1768, d. an infant ; Eunice, b. March 8, 1770. 
Deacon Benjamin Adams d. May 5, 1815, se. 86. His wife d. 
Feb. 19, 1791, a&. 62. 

Adams, Ephraim, Jr., (son of Ephraim) ; he settled in the 
west part of the town, where his grandson, Henry, now re- 
sides; like his father he was elected a Deacon in the church, 
and often in various town offices. His ch. Ephraim, b. 1773; 
Isaac, b. 1775; Lydia, b. 1777; Elizabeth, b. 1778; John, b. 
1781 ; Rebecca, b. 1782 ; Sarah, b. 1784; Susannah, b. 1785 ; 
Lucinda, b, 1788; Timothy, b. 1791; Benjamin Stearns, b. 
1794 ; Cynthia, b. 1796. He d. April 13, 1825, a3. 75. 

Ebenezer Adams, (son of Ephraim,) b. October 2, 1755; m. 
Alice Frink, July 9, 1795. She was the da. of Dr. John Frink, 
Sen'r., and sister of Dr. John Frink, Jr., all of Rutland. She 
d. June 20, 1805, and he m. 2d, Beulah Minot, of Concord, 
May 17, 1807, the dau. of Dr. Timothy Minot. She was b. 
June 28, 1773. His two sons, John and Ebenezer, graduated 
at Dartmouth College. 

Professor Adams fitted for college in New Ipswich, his 
native town, and graduated at Dartmouth College 1791. He 
soon after went to Leicester, where he was Principal of an 
Academy for fourteen years. In 1806 he took charge of the 
Academy at Portland ; but being appointed Prof, of Mathe- 
matics at Phillips' Academy, at Exeter, N. H., he left Port- 
land in 1808, and went to Exeter. In 1809, being appointed 



292 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Prof, of Languages at Dartmouth College, he removed to Han- 
over. In 1810 he was transferred to the Professorship of 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and continued in that 
station until 1833, twenty-three years, when he resigned all 
active service, but continued till his death Professor Emeritus. 

He was an original member of the Northern Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, member of the N. H. Hist. Society, Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society, the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, the Maryland Academy of Sciences and Literature 
and the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, and of other 
literary societies and institutions, and for nearly twenty years 
President of the New Hampshire Bible Society. (See N. E. 
Hist. Gen. Reg. Vol. 1, p. 80.) 

Prof. Adams was possessed of a strong intellect, most thor- 
oughly disciplined, was uncommonly amiable in his deport- 
ment, and in all the stations he filled gave the highest satisfac- 
tion. As an instructor, he was able and accurate ; no one 
surpassed him in faithfulness, and hence it was proverbial 
that he made thorough scholars. Judge Washburn, in his 
History of Leicester, says : " After a succession of Principals, 
(in Leicester Academy,) Mr Ebenezer Adams took charge of 
the Institution in 1792, and continued in that office till 1806, 
Avhen he resigned it. As a teacher his character was almost 
unrivalled. For the fourteen years he continued in that em- 
ployment, he was uniformly respected and esteemed, as well 
by his pupils as by the inhabitants of the town ; and when he 
left, bore with him the highest testimonials of the regret of 
the trustees at his surrender of a place he had so usefully 
filled." (Worcester Mag. Vol. 2, p. 80.) While at Leicester, 
he also held the ofiice of Postmaster. He d. at Hanover, N. 
H., Aug. 1841, ge. nearly 76. 

Adams, Benjamin, (s. of Benjamin,) resided the principal 
part of his life on the paternal farm, but for a few years kept 
a tavern at the old Farrar house. He d. in 1825, se. 62. 

He was an exceedingly amiable and affable man, possessed 
an enterprising spirit, with rather a sanguine turn of mind. 
At one period he took much interest in military affairs, and 
rose to the rank of Major, and ever after bore the title. He 



ADAMS FAMILY. 293 

m. Olivia Everett, (sister to David Everett). Ch. David Ev- 
erett, Olivia, Augusta, Frederic A., and others. Only the first 
named now resides in town. Frederic A. received a colle- 
giate education, studied Divinity at Andover, and was settled 
at Amherst, but now resides at the West. 

Adams, Benjamin, (s. of Ephraim, Jr.) was for many years 
one of the selectmen, and succeeded his father as deacon of 
the church. He died in 1849, se. 74. 

Adams, Stephen, (s. of Thomas,) was born at Chelmsford, 
in 1715, and was here soon after 1750; his farm was located 
beyond Mill Village; with his brother he was one of the first 
members of the church at its organization. He seems to 
have been a very quiet man, and in humble circumstances, 
but he did something for his country by furnishing three sons 
for the revolutionary army ; their names were Stephen, (who 
was a Lieutenant,) Phineas, (who was killed in battle,) and 
Jonas, (who was severely wounded). Mr. A. d. Aug. 3, 1801, 
ee. 86. 

Adams, Zachariah, brother of the above, was b. at Chelms- 
ford, in 1718, and came here before 1754; he built a saw- 
mill previous to 1760, the particular location of which is 
unsettled ; it probably stood on the falls at Mill Village ; his 
house stood near the Hodgkin's corner, on the right hand side 
of the present road, as you pass from Mr. C. Campbell's to 
Mill Village; some remains of a cellar can yet be seen there. 
He is supposed to have left town previous to the Revolution. 

Adams, Thomas, was brother of the above, and came here 
about the same time ; was concerned in the sawmill, and is 
mentioned in the Proprietors' Records, but very little is now 
known about him or his family. 

The Chelmsford Adams family was descended from Henry, 
who was at Braintree in 1630, and who was the ancestor of 
the two Presidents of that name. 



THE APPLETON FAMILY. 

To this family, which for a long period has been identified 
with, and an honor to the town, it is intended to give a some- 
what extended notice ; and we commence with extracts from 
an interesting letter written by Mr. Eben Appleton, then in 
England, to his brother, Nathan Appleton of Boston, giving 
an account of the early history of the family in that country. 
It is dated Liverpool, Oct. 20, 1818. 

" I now send you the long promised account of my researches into 
the history of our ancestors. There is little doubt we are descend- 
ed from William de Appleton of Suffolk, who died in 1326 ; for 
although our genealogical tree does not extend in a direct line, fur- 
ther back than John Appleton, (1412,) yet as the estates of William 
de Appleton were in Haxwell and Boxford in the immediate vicinity 
of Waldenfield, it is most probable we are a branch of his family. 
That he was a man of some note, I gather from the pomp and 
expense attending his funeral ; the particulars of which you will find 
herewith. 

The information I have collected is from various sources, exclusive 
of three journeys to Crayford and Dartford in Kent, South Benfleet 
in Essex, and into Suffolk. I have looked over county histories, 
ancient chronicles, books of antiquities and remains, as well as books 
of heraldry without number. I found in the collection of Harleian 
Manuscripts at the British Museum, a pedigree of the family of 
Appleton of Suffolk, from John, 1412, to Samuel, who emigrated to 
America. That our Arms are correct I also ascertained from the 
same document, as it is there stated that William, the grandfather 
of John and Samuel, bore for his arms, " Argent a fess sable be- 
tween three po??igranets gules, slipped leaved and vert," Crest, " an 
Olivanfs hed couped sa tusked ear^d or, ivith a serpent writhed about 
his noz vert." On the adjoining leaf was the pedigree of the family 
of Isaack, into which Thomas married. 

There is little doubt that the name of Appleton is of Saxon origin. 
(Apelton, — Saxon, orchard.) It was known as the name of places 
before the Norman Conquest, as it occurs in different parts of 



APPLETON FAMILY. 295 

" Domesday Book," both in York and Norfolk, as «' Appletuna, 
Appletona," &c. I find the name used for persons as early 
as 1216, (Henry III.) Mabilia de Apleton, &c. The Christian 
names being all Norman, as William, John, Henry, Edward, &c. 
the family are probably of Norman descent, and took their name 
from the place where land was granted them. It appears to have 
been variously spelt, even during the same period. Little attention 
was paid to orthography in the early times of English history. It 
is spelt Apylton, Apilton, Apelton, Apeltun, Apulton, Appulton, 
Apetone, &c. In the old county histories of Kent and Essex, the 
name occurs frequently. They appear from their marriages, estates, 
&c., to have been an ancient and highly respectable family. 

I visited Crayford in Kent, in September 1S17. I looked throuo-h 
the church and churchyard, but found nothing relative to the name 
of Appleton. I since find from Hasted's History of Kent, that the 
monuments in this church, to the Appletons and others, were des- 
troyed by a fire which consumed the church ; the date is not men- 
tioned. It appears from this history, that the Appletons owned 
estates and had resided in this neighborhood from near 1400, at 
about which time Roger was Auditor to Henry V. and VI. 

The same history says, — " these Apyltons or Appletons are sup- 
posed to be descended from a family seated in Great Waldingfield, 
in Norfolk " (diocese) ; and in another place, — " Edward Isaac, 
descendant of William Isaac, Esq., gave the manor of upper Gar- 
winton to his two daughters, nameljr, — Mary, married to Thomas 
Appleton, Esq., of Suffolk, and Margaret, married to a son of Sir 
John Jermyn." In reference to the " manor of Apulton in Jekliam 
parish," " it is written in old deeds, Apylton, from its being the in- 
heritance of a family of that name, but whether they are related to 
the Apyltons of Essex and SufTolk is uncertain." 

On the 15th of October, 1817, 1 left London for Suffolk, in strong 
hopes that on visiting the very spot upon which our ancestors had 
resided, I might find much worthy of notice. I took the road for 
Sudbury. From this place to Great Waldingfield is only three and 
a half miles. My first visit was to the church and churchyard, but 
in neither could I find any tombs or inscriptions of the name of Ap- 
pleton. I applied to the Rev. Mr. Creswell, the rector, who was 
disposed to give me every information in his power, but he knew 
nothing further than that people of our name had in old time resi- 
ded in the place and owned estates in the neighborhood. Round 
the battlements of the church are some letters cut in the stone, in 
the old English character, quite illegible to us, Mr. Creswell says 
he once, when the church was repairing, made out from the scaf- 
folding the words, " Orate pro anima," and he has been told that 
it was in memory of some of the Appletons. I then proceeded to 
Little Waldingfield, the distance across the fields only one mile. It 
is a larger village, and more pleasantly situated than Great Wal- 



296 FAMILY HISTORY. 

dingfield. I examined the church and churchyard, but was equally- 
disappointed here ; no monuments or inscriptions at present exist- 
ing to any of the name. The old clerk, whose father was clerk 
before him, says there have been no tombs with inscriptions to the 
Appletons, in either of their days. 

I find the particulars of them in " Weever's Funeral Monu- 
ments," and " Gough's Sepulchral Antiquities." But Weever col- 
lected his inscriptions in 1630 or thereabouts, and the later books of 
inscriptions were mostly copied from him. At what time these 
monumental inscriptions were destroyed, it is now impossible to 
ascertain. Many of them used to be cut in brass inlaid in the stone, 
and in the time of the civil wars, when churches were converted 
into barracks, an immense number of these inscriptions were stolen 
for the value of the brass, after which, it being unknown to whom 
the graves belonged, some other family has taken possession of the 
unclaimed tenement. [Later investigations have brought to light 
two marble slabs in the church of Little Waldingfield, with the 
effigies in brass of Robert Appleton, who died 1526, and of Mary 
his wife. Copies of the following wills are in the possession of Mr. 
Nathan Appleton ; — of Thomas Appulton, who died 1507 ; of Wil- 
liam Appuiton, who died 1514; and of Thomas Apleton, who 
died 1603.] The only interesting relic in Little Waldingfield 
church, is a helmet, part of a leather jerkin or apron, and a sort of 
coronet which tradition gives to our family, although I know not 
upon what grounds. These things hang upon an iron peg about 
twelve feet from the floor, in the chancel. A similar iron peg is 
within a few feet of this, where the remainder of the armor hung, 
but it has been stolen or lost, time unknown. There is a 
legacy of £2, to the poor of each parish of Great and Little Wal- 
denfield, left by Edward Appleton of Edwardston, son of Robert, 
secured on lands belonging to the estate of Holbrook Hall, formerly 
owned by the Appletons. It is situated in Little Waldingfield not 
a quarter of a mile from the church. The present occupier is Mr. 
Hanmer, son of Captain Hanmer, who had it from a Mrs. Warner. 

I examined the Parish Register from the year 1560, when it com- 
mences. I send you an extract from it of all which relates to our 
family. After 1640 I found no entry of the name. It was satis- 
factory to find the baptism of John and Samuel, as also of their 
father Samuel, who emigrated with them to America. There is 
only one entry of the name in Great Waldingfield Register, namely, 
1621, "Thomas son of John Appleton buried October 4th." Icon- 
versed with several of the inhabitants. They all seemed perfectly 
acquainted with the fact that the Appletons formerly owned much 
of the land about here, but further than that they knew nothing. I 
could not hear of any of the name in the county. There is unfor- 
tunately, no good county history of Suffolk. Sir Simon D'Ewes 
collected materials for writing a very particular one, but died before 
he finished it. 



APPLETON FAMILY. 297 

I annex an extract from the Parish Register of Little Walding- 
field. Parish Registers were commenced in 1538. 
1574. A daughter of Thomas Appleton, Gentleman, was baptized; 

name illegible, (no doubt Mary.) 
1576. Isaack, son of Thomas Appleton, Gent., was baptized. 
1578, Judith, a daughter of Thos. Appleton, baptized. 
1580. Sarah, 
1582. John, son of Thomas Appleton, baptized. 

1585. Thomas, " 

1586. Samuel, " " 

1589. Mary Appleton, married to Mr. Robert Ryece. 
1608. Sir Isaac Appleton, Knt. buried. 

1615. Mary Ladee Appleton, wife to Mr. Lawrence Cutler, buried. 

1616. Mary, (should be Sarah,) daughter of Samuelle Appleton, 

baptized. 
1618. Judith, daughter of Samuelle Appleton, baptized. 
1620. Martha, 

1622. John, son of Samuel Appleton, baptized. 
1624. Samuel, 

1639. Mrs. Frances Appleton, married (Jacob Preston of Beeston.) 

1640. Mr. John Appleton was buried. 

The above are all I could find. It is something of an underta- 
king to go through the Parish Register, the writing being in many 
cases a good deal obliterated, and the penmanship generally of the 
vilest character. 

In some heraldric notices of the family of De Peyton of Peyton 
Hall, Suffolk, it is stated ; — " Sir Roger de Peyton, who died 25th of 
Edward III. (1351,) married the Lady Christiana de Apleton, who 
was heir to land in Boxford and Haxwell, and who died 19th of Ed- 
ward II. and was buried at Stoke Neyland, Suffolk, with great 
pomp." Extract from the funeral expenses : — 

55 Quarters of Wheat, £4. 10. 

1 Hogshead of Wine, £53. 4. 

4 Muttons, 5. 

5 Barrow Hogs, £1. 4. 
10 Calves, et caetera. 

A curious document, showing the cheapness of provisions and the 
dearness of wine. It may have been some peculiar sort used at fu- 
nerals. At the Herald's Office is a record signed Robert Appleton, 
at the visitation in 1664, namely, — 

Thomas Appleton, Esq., of Little Waldingfield. 

John Appleton, Esq., of Chilton. 

Robert Appleton, of Preston, Barrister at Law. 

Preston is about ten miles from Waldingfield. I did not visit it. 

I shall close this long letter by adding the different Arms of the 

name, as stated in different books of Heraldry. I presume all those 

which have apples on them are from the Suffolk and Essex stock, 

38 



298 FAMILY HISTORY. 

and the others with bears, &c., belong to the York and Lancaster 
families, which are probably totally distinct. 

Apfleton, — Suffolk. Argent, a fesse sable, between three apples 
gules, stalked and leaved vert ; — Crest, an elephant's head couped 
sable ear'd or, in his mouth a snake vert, writhed about his trunk. 

I shall be pleased, if you derive half the satisfaction in reading 
what I have collected, that I have done in the research. Surely, 
the social and moral feelings should receive improvement, and the 
mind be stimulated to virtuous emulation, by wandering amidst the 
tombs of our ancestors, tracing the rude inscriptions which record 
their peaceful virtues, and in looking back to an extended line, who 
have descended to their graves free from reproach. Let us be care- 
ful to leave the same memorial to our posterity. 
Your affectionate brother, 

E. Appleton. 

L* Samuel Appleton v;as born in 1586, at Little Wald- 
ingfield, Suffolk county, England. His name first appears, 
in this country, among the persons who took the freeman's 
oath, 25th of 3d month, (May,) 1636. " He, with three 
others, Robert Keaine, Henry Flint, and Daniel Maude, 
out of sixty-two persons then admitted, had the honorary 
prefix of Mr., which then was used to designate a graduate of 
a University, or a gentleman by birth. He appears to have 
contemplated an earlier emigration, as we infer from a letter of 
Governor Winthrop to his son at Groton, dated August 14th, 
1630, and written shortly after his arrival. Every circum- 
stance shows conclusively that his emigration m>ist have been 
prompted by religious motives, as a Puritan. He settled at 
Ipswich, where he had a grant of lands ; a building lot of 
eight acres in the town, on the Topsfield road, running down 
to the river; also four hundred and sixty acres, constituting 
what are now called the farms, lying on the line of the town 
of Hamilton, and bounded on one side by Ipswich River, and 
on the other by Mile Brook. A large portion of this farm is 
now in possession of his descendants. 

He was Deputy at the General Court, 17th May, 1637, and 
was chosen to assist at the particular Court at Ipswich. He 
was also at the Court, 6th June same year at Boston, and also 

* The Roman capitals designate the different Generations. 



APPLETON FAMILY. 299 

6th August, when he was on a committee for raising a rate of 
£400. He was also present at I he Court of 26th September 
same year, but was not chosen to the new Court, which met 
on the 2d November foHowing. We are informed by Backus, 
in his history of New England, of the cause of his being left 
out. The former Court refused to support the views of the 
Synod at Newton, which condemned eighty-two errors in 
religion, as connected with Mrs. Hutchinson and her party. A 
new Court was chosen, better disposed to sustain the intolerant 
views of the times, which banished Mrs. Hutchinson and 
several others. This dismission from public services, under 
these circumstances, is honorable to him, and he does not after- 
wards appear in it. 

Samuel Appleton married Mary Everard. Nothing farther 
is known of her, than that the family of Everard was a highly 
respectable one in the County of Suffolk. She accompanied 
her husband, with their five children, to this country. He died 
June, 1670, at Rowley, Massachusetts, where he was buried, 
and where it is probable he had resided with his- daughter, 
Mrs. Phillips, during the latter part of his life. By Mary 
Everard he had the following children : — 

1 — John. 2 — Samuel. 3 — Sarah. 4 — Judith, m. Samuel 
Rogers, 1657, son of the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich- 
5 — Martha, m. Richard Jacob. 

n. Samuel Appleton, the second son of Samuel I., was 
born at Waldingfield in 1624, and came to New England with 
his father at the age of eleven years. He was Deputy to 
the General Court, under the title of Lieutenant Samuel Ap- 
pleton, in 1668 ; and in 1669-71, in company with his brother, 
Captain John ; again in 1673 and 1675 by himself 

In this last year, the Indian war, called Philip's war, broke 
out. On the Massachusetts Files is the following record, 
1675: — "On 24th September ordered, that a commission be 
issued forth to Captain Samuel Appleton, to command a foot 
company of 100 men." His destination was the frontier 
towns on the Connecticut River, where Captain Lathrop's 
Company was destroyed on the 18th September. On the 4th 
October he was appointed " Commander in Chief of the army 



300 FAMILY HISTORY. 

in those parts, by whose industry, skill and courage," says 
Hubbard, his neighbor, " those towns were preserved from 
running the same fate with the rest, wholly or in part turned 
into ashes." This appointment was in pursuance of the re- 
quest of Major Pynchon, to resign the chief command, in con- 
sequence of the loss of his barns, &c., a short time previously, 
in the conflagration of Springfield. To his letter to the Coun- 
cil making this request, under date 30th September, 1675, is 
appended the following postcript: — " Capt. Appleton is a man 
yt is desirous to doe something in this day of distress; being 
very sensible of y^ cause and people of God, at stake, and is 
much to be commended and upon that account to be preferred 
before many yt dare not jeopard their lives in the high places 
of ye field." On the 19th October, a violent assault was made 
upon Hatfield by 700 or SOO Indians, who were repulsed after 
a sharp conflict, as described by Hubbard, who says, " Major 
Appleton's sargent was mortally wounded just by his side, an- 
other bullet passing through his own hair, by that whisper tell- 
ing him that death was very near, but did him no other harm." 
There are a number of his letters on file in the Secretary's 
office, Massachusetts, bearing date from the 12th October to 
the 20th November, giving a detail of his operations in that 
quarter, and his difficulties with the Connecticut officers. 
They are written in a beautiful chirography, with great 
precision of style, and are full of the pious spirit of the day. 
Unfortunately, the letter which must have given an account 
of the attack upon Hatfield is missing. 

After placing small garrisons in the towns on the river, he 
prepared for the expedition then fitting out for the Narragan- 
sett country, in which he had the command of the Massachu- 
setts forces, consisting of six companies of foot and a troop of 
horse, in all 527 men. These were placed under his command 
at Dedham, December 9th, 1675 ; and with the Plymouth and 
Connecticut troops, making up the number of 1000 men, were 
under the command of General Win slow. Nothing could 
show the alarm of New England, at the deeply organized plan 
of Philip, more than the undertaking this expedition at this 
severe season of the year. In the bloody action of 19th De- 
cember, 1675, and the capture of the Narragansett fort, Mas- 



APPLETON FAMILY. 301 

sachusetts lost 110 men, killed and wounded. The troops 
returned to Boston, and Major Appleton seems then to have 
left the service. 

In October, 1676, he was appointed to proceed to Piscata- 
qua. with the full command of an expedition, then fitting out 
for that place, but he seems to have declined the appointment. 

He was chosen to the Council as Assistant in 1681, in which 
office he continued until the appointment of Sir Edmund An- 
dres as Governor-General in 1686. In Edward Randolph's 
letter giving the characters of the leading men of Massachu- 
setts, he is placed amongst the factious ; in other M^ords, the 
supporters of the rights of the colonists. On the deposition 
of Sir Edmund Andros, his name appears in the Council, 
called to the Provisional Government of the Colony. He was 
of the Council named in the Charter of William and Mary, 
in 1692. 

He did not escape the persecution of Sir Edmund Andros 
and his tools, probably on account of the freedom of speech, 
in which he denounced his arbitrary assumption of power. 
On the 19th September, 1687, three days after the order for 
the arrest of the Selectmen of Ipswich, warrants were issued 
for the arrest of Dudley Bradstreet of Andover, Samuel Ap- 
pleton of Ipswich, and Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, as 
" persons factiously and seditiously inclined, and disaffected 
to his Majesty's government." On the 3d and 5th October, 
two other special warrants were issued for the apprehension 
of Samuel Appleton, by which it appears that he secreted 
himself, probably at the house of his son at Lynn. It was 
doubtless on this occasion that the scene occurred, referred to 
in Lewis's history of Lynn, (1st edition,) where he is repre- 
sented as addressing the people from a rocky eminence, near 
the Lynn print and bleach works, which still goes by the name 
of Appleton's pulpit. 

At lengdi, on the 19th October, he was brought before the 
Governor and Council, by Thomas Larkin, Messenger, and 
" ordered to stand committed until he give bond in the sum of 
one thousand pounds to appear at the next Superior Court, at 
Salem, to answer what shall be objected against him, and in 
the mean time to be of good behaviour." This bond he re- 



302 FAMILY HISTORY. 

fused to give ; whereupon, at a Council on the 30th Novem- 
ber, he was ordered to be imprisoned in Boston jail. How 
long he remained in prison is not known. So far as appears, 
the severe measures of the Government subdued al! others to 
the footstool of Sir Edmund ; but Major Appleton was inflex- 
ible, and was visited with his vengeance to the last extremity. 
The writer was informed by Mr. John Appleton of Cambridge, 
that it was a tradition in the family, that on the imprison- 
ment of Sir Edmund in 1689, and his confinement at the 
castle, Major Appleton was allowed the satisfaction of hand- 
ing him into the boat which conveyed him off. 

His will is dated April, 1695, and was proved May 25th, 
1696 ; witnesses, Samuel Phillips, Sr., and Edward Payson. 
He divided the land included in the angle between Mill River 
and Mile Brook, embracing the whole original grant, between 
his four sons. 

His first wife was Hannah Paine, daughter of William 
Paine of Ipswich, afterwards of Boston, by whom he had the 
following children : — 

1. — Hannah, m. William Downes, a merchant of Boston, and 
had issue, a daughter. 2. — Judith, m. Samuel Wolcott, of 
Windsor, Connecticut. He was grandson of Henry, who 
arrived in America in 1630, and removed to Connecticut. 
3. — Samuel. 

Samuel Appleton's second wife was Mary Oliver, b. 1640, 
whom he married December 8th, 1656, at the age of sixteen. 
She was daughter of John Oliver of Newbury, who was a 
deputy in 1637, and died 1642. By her, Samuel Appleton had 
the following children: — 

4. — John. 5. — Major Isaac. 6. — Oliver. 7. — Joannah, m. 
Nathaniel Whipple. 

Samuel Appleton died October 30th, 1725, and was buried 
at Ipswich. His wife survived him, and was subsequently 
married to the Rev. Edward Payson. 

III. Major Isaac Appleton, b. 1664, at Ipswich. He m. 
Priscilla Baker, granddaughter of Lieutenant-Governor Sym- 
onds. He d. 1747. Their children were, — 

1. — Priscilla, b. 1697, m. Thomas Burnham of Ipswich, 



APPLETON FAMILY. 303 

and had sons, Thomas of Ipswich, and James of Portland. 
2. — Mary, b. 1702, m. Zachariah Osgood of Andover, 1729. 
3. — Isaac. 4. — Elizabeth, m. Josiah Fairfield of Wenham. 
5. — Martha, m. John White of Haverhill. 6. — Rebecca, m. 
William Dodge of Ipswich, a distinguished merchant. 

IV. Isaac Appleton, b. 1704, at Ipswich. He married 

Elizabeth Sawyer, daughter of Sawyer, a merchant of 

Wells, Maine. She was b. 1710, and d. 1785. He d. 1794. 
Their children were, — 

1. — Dea. Isaac Appleton of New Ipswich. 2. — Francis of 
N.Ipswich. 3. — Elizabeth, m. Sam'l Bartlett, of N. Ipswich. 
Their children were : — 1. Isaac ; 2. Samuel ; 3. Daniel ; 4. 
Noah ; 5. a daughter, m. Fox. 4. — Samuel of Ipswich. 5. 
— Thomas of Beverly, b. 1741. He was twice married. By 
his first wife, he had two children : 1. Isaac ; 2. Elizabeth. 
By the second, who was a Dane, sister of Nathan Dane, he 
had three children : 1. Daniel; 2. Lydia ; 3. Sarah. His wife 
d. in 1845, ae. 103 years. He d. 1831. 6. — John of Buxton, 
Maine. He settled on lands granted in 1730, to the officers 
and soldiers engaged in the Narragansett fight. He left no 
issue. 7. — Daniel of Buxton, Maine, m. Adams, d. 1836. 
He settled on lands granted like the preceding. His children 
were: 1. Daniel; 2. Joseph; 3. Elizabeth, m. Hopkinson. 
8. — WiLLiABi of Portsmouth. 9. — Mary, m. Woodbury, and 
had two children ; 1. Samuel ; 2. Mary, m. Thomas McMa- 
hon, by whom she had four children. 10. — Rev. Joseph 
Appleton of North Brook field. 

V. Deacon Isaac Appleton, of New Ipswich ; b. May '31st, 
1731, m. April 24th, 1760, Mary Adams, who was born 
April 14, 1742, and died May 22d, 1829. She was daughter 
of Joseph Adams of Concord, who d. May lOth, 1790, ae. 88, 
and Dorothy his wife, who d. July 24th, 1791, ae. 85. He 
died February 25th, 1806. Their children were, — 

1. — Isaac of Dublin, N. H. 2. — Joseph B., b. June 25th, 
1764, d. December 2d, 1791, at Keene, N. H. He graduated 
at Dartmouth College, 1791. 3. — Samuel, merchant of Boston. 
4. — Aaron of Keene, b. August 6th, 1768, m. 1st. Eunice 
Adams, who d. July 24th, 1841 ; 2d. Keziah Bixby, he d. June 



304 FAMILY HISTORY. 

1852. 5. — Dolly, b. September 6th, 1770, m. David Everett. 
6. — Moses, of VVaterville, Me. 7. — Mary. 8. — Ebenezer, b. 
October 17th, 1777, d. July 7th, 1780. 9.— Nathan, merchant 
of Boston. 10. — Emily. 11. — Eben. 12. — Emma, b. April 
14th, 1788, d. January, 1792. 

V. Francis Appleton, of New Ipswich ; b. 1732, m. Hub- 
bard, d. January, 1816. He inherited a right of land north 
of his brother, on which he settled about 1770. He was an 
amiable, industrious and pious man, but being subject at times 
to a remarkable aberration of mind, he never took much in- 
terest in town affairs. He went to the capture of Burgoyne, 
Avhere he lost his horse. He was the father of Jesse, hereaf- 
ter mentioned, who became one of the most distinguished di- 
vines in New England. His children were, — 

1. — Isaac, who lived in Mill Village. 2. — Francis, of Dub- 
lin, N. H., m. Mary Ripley, and had several children. 3. — John 
of New Ipswich, m. Betsey Peabody. He was father of Hon. 
John Appleton of Bangor, Judge of the Supreme Court of 
Maine, and of Elvira, who m. George Gibson. 4. — Rev. 
Jesse Appleton. 5. — Mary. 6. — Betsey. 

VI. Francis Appleton, (s. of Francis,) was born in 1759. 
When about eighteen years of age he performed one or two 
campaigns as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. At the age 
of twenty he left home and settled in Dublin. He m. Mary 
Ripley, the sister of Rev. Dr. Ripley of Concord. In 1790 he 
and his wife became members of the church under the care of 
the Rev. Edward Sprague, and in 1795 he was chosen a dea- 
con, and discharged its duties for thirty-six years, till in 1831 
he resigned, feeling that old age and infirmity was a sufficient 
excuse for taking such a step. 

His days were extended far beyond his expectation ; and 
many years before his death he arranged his temporal affairs 
as if he was soon to leave the world. He d. July 17, 1849, 
as. 90 ; his wife d. in 1840, ae. 74. 

VI. Isaac Appleton, of Dublin, N. H., b. June 6th, 1762, 
m. Sarah Twitchell, 1788. She was b. January 9th, 1768, 
and d. March 2Sth, 1828. Their children were,— 



APPLETON FAMILY, 305 

1. — Sarah, m. James B. Todd. 2. — Joseph, b. December 
5th, 1791, d. May 9th, 1840. 3.— Emily, b. May 15th, 1794, 
m. Estabrook, d. September 9th, 1842. 4. — David. 5. — Mary. 
6. — Samuel, b. July 12th, 1803, m. Heywood, d. June 20th, 
1830. 7.— Isaac, b. February 21st, 1807, d. November 26th, 
1827. 8. — Harriet, m. Rev. Henry A. Kendall of Dublin. 

VI. Samuel Appleton, merchant of Boston, b. June 22d, 
1766, m. Mrs. Mary Gore. 

VI. Rev. Jesse Appleton, b. November 17th, 1772, in New 
Ipswich. He entered Dartmouth College in 1788. He pre- 
pared himself for the ministry and was ordained at Hampton, 
N. H., in February, 1797. In 1807, on the decease of the 
Rev. D. McKeen, the first President of Bowdoin College, Mr. 
Appleton was chosen his successor. Two volumes of his 
works, embracing his course of Theological Lectures, his 
Academic Addresses, and a selection from his Sermons, with 
a Memoir of his life and character, were published in 1837. 

In 1800, he married Elizabeth Means, daughter of the Hon. 
Robert Means of Amherst, N. H, He died November 12th, 
1819. Their children were, — 

1. — Mary Means, m. John Aiken. 2. — Elizabeth FranceSj 
b. April 22d, 1809, m. Alpheus S. Packard of Brunswick, Me., 
d. June 2d, 1839. 3. — Jane Means, m. Gen. Franklin Pierce 
of Concord, N. H., now nominated for President of the U. S. 
4. — William, b. November 7th, 1808, d. at Cincinnati, October 
19th, 1830. 5. — Robert, m. Rebecca W. Means, d. 1851. 
6. — John, b. August 14th, 1814, d. October 19th, 1817. 

VI. MosEs Appleton, M. D., of Waterville, Maine, b. Mar. 
17th, 1773, [Gr. D. C. 1791,] m. Ann Clark, 1801, d. May 
6th, 1849. Their children were, — 

1. — Ann Louisa, m. Hon. Samuel Wells of Portland. 2. — 
Samuel. 3. — Mary Jane, m. Dr. Sam'l Plaisted. 4. — George 
Alfred, b. June 5th, 1809, d. young. 5. — Moses Larke, m. 
Jane Hill. Resides in Bangor. 

VI. Mary Appleton, b. June 22d, 1775, m. Joseph Barrett, 
October 3d, 1809. Their children were, — 

1.— Joseph Appleton, b. July 22d, 1812, d. April 20th, 1833, 
39 



306 FAMILY HISTORY. 

while a sophomore in college. 2. — Emily Maria, b. October 
23d, 1814, d. June Uth, 1833. 3.— Mary Narcissa, m. Sam- 
uel W. Bent. 4. — Dora Everett, m. Dr. Edward Spalding, 
of Nashua. 

VI. Nathan Appleton, merchant of Boston, b. October 6th, 
1779, m. 1st, Maria Theresa Gold, 1806,Mvho was b. Novem- 
ber 8th, 1786, and d. February 10th, 1833. Their children 
were, — 

1. — Thobias Gold. 2. — Mary, m. Robert James Mackin- 
tosh. 3. — Charles Sedgwick, b. October 9th, 1815, d. October 
25th, 1835. 4. — Fanny Elizabeth, m. Henry Wadsworth 
Longfellow. 

He m. 2d. Harriot C. Sumner, 1839. Their children were, 
5. — William Sumner. 6. — Harriot. 7, — Nathan. 

VI. Emily Appleton, b. November 7th, 1781. She m. No- 
vember 6th, 1804, Moses Jewett, who was b. July 5th, 1777, 
and d. August 12th, 1847, at Columbus, Ohio. She d. June 
4th, 1809, at Burlington, Vermont. Their children were, 

1.— Harriet, b. September 17th, 1805, d. July 31st, 1806. 
2. — Isaac Appleton. 

VI. Eben Appleton, b. June 7th, 1784. He m. October 
12th, 1809, Sarah Patterson, who d. July 12th, 1837. He d. 
April 29th, 1833. Their children were,— 

1. — Sarah, b. July 12th, 1810, at Liverpool, England, d. 
June 5th, 1837. 2. — Samuel A. m. Julia Webster, who d. April 
28th, 1848. 3. — William S. m. Georgiana Louisa Frances 
Armistead of Baltimore. 4. — Caroline Frances, m. Samuel 
Blatchford of Auburn, New York. 



1*1^ . 't'ii4M^ 



APPLETON FAMILY. 



307 




'^if^^^i 




/fO-CCC ^/y(-^/a^ (son of Isaac,) was bom at 
^ ^ Ipswich in 1731, and remov- 

ed to New Ipswich about the year 1750. His father was 
the largest proprietor in the town, having six shares, a part 
of which were inherited by his sons. Mr. A. built his house 
at first about one hundred rods southeast of the site of his 
later residence. He was not a man of great physical vigor, 
but this lack was more than made up by his industry, 
prudence, piety, and all the qualities which go to make up a 
good name and inspire confidence. He was a true patriot ; 
and on the news of Concord fight reaching town, he exerted 
himself to arouse the people to hasten to repel the enemy, and 
went himself with them. He was one of the Committee 
of Safety, and was in two or more campaigns during the war. 
As deacon of the Church he was also foremost in all good 
works ; and his influence was always exerted for peace. He 
took a share in all the various enterprizes which would bene- 
fit the town, and the Academy always felt his influence. 
Many a poor student was assisted and encouraged by him ; 
among others, the late Rev. Dr. Worcester of Salem may be 
named, for which his biographer has just made honorable 
mention. 



308 FAIMILY HISTORY. 

Samuel Appleton. — In noticing the life of this useful, 
distinguished, and now venerable man, we cannot speak with 
the freedom we have of those worthies who have passed from 
among us, and altliough he is no longer to be found amid the 
active scenes of life, still, like the hidden fountain, he continues 
to pour out a perennial stream which gladdens the heart of the 
widow and orphan ; while the institutions of learning and 
charity often have occasion to acknowledge his bounty. 

By a reference to the Family Genealogy, it will be seen that 
he was the son of Deacon Isaac and Mrs. Mary Appleton, and 
was born, in 1766, in the Family Mansion, a view of which is 
seen on p. 307. During the period of his youth, the schools 
in town afforded him but a meagre opportunity for improve- 
ment ; and it is likely that to a father of much more than the 
usual abilities of farmers of that day, as well as to a strong- 
minded mother, he was indebted for the rudiments of knowl- 
edge, as well as for the good habits and firm principles of 
integrity which have adorned his character. He well recol- 
lects, however, attending school in the first school house, which 
was afterwards Joseph Bachelder's shop, under the instruction 
of Mr. Hedge. 

His first step in the world, and probably his first egress 
beyond the borders of his native town, was when he was 
about twelve years of age, and is pleasantly told in his letter 
addressed to the citizens of Peterboro', on the occasion of their 
Centennial Jubilee. 

Boston, Oct. 22, 1839. 

Gentlemen, — I have received 3 our letter of the 16th inst.,with a polite invita- 
tion to attend the celebration of the First Centennial Anniversary of the town of 
Peterborough, on the 24th inst. I much regret that it will not be in my power to 
attend said celebration, as it would afford me much pleasure to meet my friends 
and acquaintances at that place. 

I have known Peterborough for about sixty years, and observed with pleasure 
its rapid growth in population, agriculture, manufactures, arts, sciences, literature, 
&c., &c. 

My first visit to Peterborough I will relate, merely to show some of the changes 
that have taken place since my recollection. Fifty-nine years ago last April, a 
man with a drove of cattle passed my father's house in New Ipswich, on his way 
to a pasture for his cattle in the town of Hancock. Being in want of assistance 
to drive his cattle, and seeing a flaxen-haired boy at the door, he bargained with 
my father that I should assist him on his way as far as the mills in Peterborough, 
distance ten miles ; for this service to be performed by me, my father received 
ninepence, lauful money; we arrived at the mills — a rickety saw and grist mill, 
standing on the site wlfjere the Peterborough Factory now stands, about four 
o'clock. The man of cattle then offered me half as much as he had paid my 






v^i^'^:^^^'.-^ tC;^/^^^^- 



TAruir-eH's ^ C^.IHwslxc/'! 



APPLETON FAMILY. 309 

father, and a night's lodging, if I would go on with him through the woods three 
miles to Taylor's Tavern. I readily consented, and pocketed the cash. At that 
time there was only one house (Doctor Young's) between the mills and the 
tavern. All the rest of the way was a dreary wilderness. But enough of my 
first visit to Peterborough. I propose, with your permission. Gentlemen, the fol- 
lowing toast : — 

The. First Settlers of the town of Peterborough, — The Smiths, the Wilsons, the Steeles, 
the Moiisons, and many others ; celebrated for their industry, perseverance, prudence 
and honesty. Also their sons and grand-sons whether at home or abroad; they have 
done honor to themselves, to their native town, and to their country. Their virtues 
and talents have shed a lustre on every profession, political, judicial, ecclesiastical, 
medical, military and scientific. 

I have the honor to be, most respectfully, gentlemen, your obedient, humble 
servant. Samuel Appleton. 

Mr. A. for several years assisted his father in carrying on 
his farm. In 1787 that famous teacher, Mr. Hubbard, taught 
a school in the Middle District of a much higher order than 
any that had before been known in that part of the country. 
In this he was, for a year or two, an industrious scholar ; and 
in the Autumn of 1789, just after the opening of the Academy, 
he received the first certificate of his ability to teach a school, 
that was ever issued from that institution. 

New Ipswich Academy, 17th Nov., 1789. 
To All whom it may concern. 
This may certify, that Samuel Appleton has, in time past, been under my in- 
struction; that he is well acquainted with English Grammar, and well capable of 
keeping an English School, he is hereby recommended to the attention of any 
gentleman who shall see fit to employ him. 

(Signed) John Hubbard, Preceptor. 

He taught a school in Temple the succeeding winter, and 
the next year was presented with the following testimonial 
from his beloved pastor, and was again employed in teaching. 

New Ipswich, November 8th, 1790. 
This may certify, that Mr. Samuel Appleton, of this town, is a person who 
supports a good Moral character, and is possessed of abilities sufficient to instruct 
a school, in reading, writing, orthography, English Grammar, and Arithmetic. 

Attest, Stephen Farrar. 

About this period the new lands in Maine were attracting 
much attention. Many persons from this town had been 
induced to settle there on land which had been granted to the 
Hon. C. Barrett ; and Mr. A. spent a part of two years there, 
with some design of making it his permanent residence, and 
partly as agent for Mr. Barrett. It was to a small church, 
erected within a few years near this place, that he so gener- 
ously presented a Bell, much to the gratification of the inhab ■ 



310 FAMILY HISTORY. 

itants of the town, when tlie following interesting correspond- 
ence ensued. 

Appleton, Oct. 24th, 184.5. 

Samuel Applelon, Esq. : Sir, — We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the town 
of Appleton, would respectfully represent, that we have lately erected a small 
meeting-house at the village of McLain's Mills, in said town, and that we feel 
anxious to obtain a bell suitable for the same; that our numbers are small, and 
the expense already incurred falls heavily upon us; and knowing the high repu- 
tation you every where sustain for liberality, have been induced to ask you to 
present us with a bell. The only reasons we have to offer for asking the boon at 
your hands, rather than any other person, are — 

First — Because the town of Appleton was named in honor of your venerable 
father, and to commemorate the name of his family; and, 

Secondly — That if we have not been wrongfully informed, you can make the 
gift without the least possible injury or inconvenience to yourself or family. 

We do not pretend to have any claim upon you, except upon your generosity; 
and should you decline complying with our wishes, we shall have no fault to 
find. Will you please give an answer, and direct to the first signer of this letter. 

Benj. McLain, (and others). 

Boston, November 3, 184-5. 

Benjamin McLain, {and his associates) : Sir — I have received a letter, 
dated October 24th, signed by yourself and seven others, inhabitants of the town 
of Appleton, requesting me to make a present of a bell, suitable for a meeting- 
house lately erected at the village of McLain's Mills in said town. You say the 
reasons of your asking the boon from me, rather than any other person, are — 
" First, that the town of Appleton was named in honor of my venerable father, 
and to commemorate the name of his family." 1 think there must be some mis- 
take in this. My father, Isaac Appleton, lived and died on a small farm at New 
Ipswich, New Hampshire. I do not think he was ever in the Srtate of Maine, or 
ever heard of the town of Appleton. 

I, myself, formerly had some knowledge of your neighborhood. About sixty 
years ago, I was among the first settlers of the town of Hope, (then called Bar- 
rettstown.) I took for myself a lot of land, more than two miles from any other 
settlement, and for some time carried my provisions on my back, going through 
the woods by marked trees, to my' log-house and home at that time. My lot of 
land was near where Mr. Reuben Safford built a house on his land. If Mr. Saf- 
ford, or any other persons are now living who resided in Hope from fifty-five to 
sixty years ago, they can tell you something of Samuel Appleton of that day. 

As I should be very sorry to give a bell that might sound my praises under 
false pretences or impressions, I therefore most respectfully decline complying 
with your wishes. Sam'l Appleton. 

Appleton, Nov. 10th, 1845. 

Samuel Appleton : Sir — Your letter of November 3d has been received, and 
we thank you for the information you have given us. The most aged persons 
now living in this town have always stated that the town of Appleton was named 
in honor of your father, who, they believed, resided in Boston at the time, and 
was an owner of Eastern lands; and we have always supposed (till now) that 
this was the fact : how this impression became so general, I am not able to say. 

The farm upon which you connnenced in your young days lies about three 
miles from the new Meeting-House, and is now under improvement. Your old 
neighbor, Mr. Saflbrd, is still living, although his head seems to be whitened by 
the frosts of many winters. 

As we have been mistaken in regard for whom the town was named, we now 
withdraw the request that you would give us a Bell, and hope you will not be- 
lieve that we intended to obtain one from you under " false pretences," — for if 



APPLETON FAMILY. 311 

we had succeeded in getting it by such means, it would have sounded only our 
own dishonor. Benjamin McLain. 

Boston, Dec. 1st, 1845. 

Benjamin McLain, Esq. : Sir — I have received your letter of November 
10th, in which you withdraw your request made in a former letter, that I would 
give a meeting-house bell to the town of Appleton. You will please to recollect 
that your reasons for asking me for a bell, were — " First, that the town of Ap- 
pleton was named in honor of my father." In answer to that letter, I informed 
you that your first reason for asking me for a bell, was not correct; as the town 
was not named in honor of my father, I therefore declined giving a bell on that 
score. 

Your second reason for asking me for a bell, was, " that if you were not 
wrongly informed, I could make the gift without the least possible injury or in- 
convenience to myself." To this, your second reason, I now reply, that through 
the kindness of Providence, in my pecuniary affairs, you were not wrongly in- 
formed on that subject; and if you will procure a suitable bell for your new 
meeting-house, and send me the bill, I will with the greatest pleasure pay the 
amount. 

I am happy to hear that a meeting-house is erected, and that the gospel is 
preached within three miles of the place where I spent three long summer sea- 
sons, during which time, I never heard the sound of a church-going bell, or ever 
heard a sermon, or the voice of prayer : there being at the time, no place of 
public worship within twenty miles of my humble dwelling. 

Samuel Appleton. 

Mr. Appleton's first interest in trade was at Ashburnham, 
where he remained only a year. Soon after he opened a store 
at the foot of the old Meeting-house hill, where he carried on 
business with considerable success for a few years, a part of 
the time in partnership with the late Charles Barrett, Esq. 

In 1794, he removed to Boston, and commenced business. 
He was not long after joined by his brother Nathan, and the 
firm of S. & N. Appleton was soon well known as a prosper- 
ous and extensive concern. 

In 1799 he made his first voyage to England, where he re- 
mained some months. About 1SU2 he made a second voyage 
to England and the continent, and for the next twenty years 
much of his time was passed abroad, but neither his friends or 
his adopted city with its charitable institutions were forgotten. 
His noble and unlooked-for gift to the Female Asyhim gave an 
impulse to that Institution which has again, on a more recent 
occasion acknowledged his bounty and elicited a correspond- 
ence which is as pleasant as it is honorable to the writers. 

Boston, July 5th, 1844. 
To the Managers of the Boston Female Asxjlum : 

Ladies, — I had the pleasure when in London, a great many years ago, to 
receive a very polite letter from your Secretary, A. L. Frothingham, dated No- 



312 FAMILY HISTORY. 

vember 3d, 1815, for a donation I then sent you. That letter was couched in 
sucn flattering terms that it left me much your debtor. 

It has aftbrded me much pleasure to see and to hear of the good effects of your 
disinterested exertions in the cause of female orphans, and I am happy to learn 
that a sum has lately been raised, that will enable you to build a larger, and 
more comfortable house, and to curry on this good work of charity more exten- 
sively than heretofore, — I send you enclosed, one thousand dollars, my subscrip- 
tion, in furtherance of the above named object. I wish continued success to the 
Boston Female Asylum ; health and happiness to the managers, and other officers 
thereunto belonging ; and constant improvement to the orphan recipients of its 
bounty and watchful care. 

I have to be, Ladies, with great respect, your most obedient, most humble 
servant. Samuel, Appleton. 

On receipt of this gift, the Managers of the Institution voted 
their thanks to Mr. A., in communicating which, the Secre- 
tary adds, — 

I cannot, my dear sir, send this expression of gratitude from the Managers of 
the Asylum, without making my individual acknowledgements for the kindness 
with which you mention the note I had the honor to address to you, nearly twenty- 
nine years ago. 

I believe it very seldom happens that the same officer of any charitable society 
has an opportunity, after an interval of so many years, to address its thanks to 
the same benefactor. 

The oriental hyperbole, " may you live a thousand years," rises spontaneously 
to my mind, accompanied by the thoughts that there is, indeed, a sense in which 
we may live, even on this earth, through an unimagined period, in the conse- 
quences and influences of our present life ; and perhaps, be permitted to trace 
them, in a future one, to their remote results. 

May you have many years, in which to increase the store of recompenses, thus 
laid up for you. Abby L. Wales. 

Boston, July 31st, 1844. 

BosTox, May 28th, 1845. 
To Ahby L. Wales, Secretary of the Boston Female Asylum : — 

I received on the 1st of Aug. last your letter of the 31st, enclosing a vote of 
thanks passed at a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Boston Female 
Asylum, July 30th, for a donation sent them toward the building of a new house, 
for the Asylum. I also received your letter, signed Abby L. Wales, in which 
you are pleased to say: " The oriental hyperbole, ' May you live a thousand 
years,' rises spontaneously in your mind, accompanied by the thought that there 
is indeed, a sense in which we may live, even on this earth, through an unimagined 
period, in the consequences and influence of our present life ; and perhaps be 
permitted to trace them in a future one, to their remote results." 

This explanation of the phrase, " May you live a thousand )-ears," although 
to me entirely new, appears both beautiful and rational. It discloses a very 
interesting truth, which might otherwise appear a mere extravagant wish. The 
thought that our actions, though apparently unimportant, may yet, not only- 
influence distant generations, in this world, but in their remote results, may even 
he felt through a future state of existence, might perhaps, if properly kept in 
view, encourage us to the doing of good deeds, and deter us from doing those 
which are evil. 

I send you enclosed one thousand dollars, which I wish may be invested in a 
permanent fund. The interest on the same to be expended annually, in medals, 
books, money, or any thing else the managers may think proper, among the most 
deserving girls at the Boston Female Asylum. A present, though trifling in value, 



APPLETON FAMILY. 313 

given to an orphan girl of eight or ten years of age, for her good deeds or good 
behavior, may perhaps have a beneficial influence on her conduct, through life. 

Should it be supj)osed that this donation is prompted by a hope of realizing in 
the meniories of men or women, the idea contained in the oriental hyperbole, so 
kindly made use of in your letter, I can only say that if any thing could reconcile 
me to such a motive it might perhaps be the thought of a favorable recollection, a 
thousand years hence, in the minds of persons, governed by so pure and disin- 
terested principles, as those which have characterized the past and present man- 
agers of the Boston Female Asylum. 

With great respect, I have the honor to be your most obedient, most humble 
servant. Samuel, Appleton. 

About 1820, Mr. A. retired from the active pursuits of busi- 
ness, with a large estate, which was the result of a well-con- 
ducted commercial business and an untiring industry, and still 
richer in an unstained reputation. Till within a few years 
he was to be found taking an active interest in the good 
enterprises that concerned his adopted city, and liberally 
distributing from his abundance to the really deserving. It 
would be beyond our limits to name but a part of his noble 
gifts. To Dartmouth College he has been a benefactor, as 
the following letter will testify. 

Boston, June 27th, 1845. 
To JVathan Lord, D. D., President of Dartmouth College : — 

Dear Sir, — I was happy to learn from you, when you did me the honor to 
call at my house, a few days ago, that the liberal sum of $25,000 had already 
been subscribed for the benefit of Dartmouth College. 

For the purpose of giving further aid to the institution at this time, I send you 
enclosed, my check on the Columbian Bank for 09,000. This sum, with the do- 
nation of $11,000 sent you in August 1843, making ,f 10,000, 1 wish may be in- 
vested as a permanent fund for the establishment of a Professorship of Natural 
Philosophy, at Dartmouth College. The interest accruing on the same to be ap- 
propriated, annually, towards the support of a Professorship in that extensive and 
useful branch of education. 

I cannot better express myself on the subject, than by making an extract from 
my letter to the President of Dartmouth College, August 28th, 1843. 

" It aftbrds me much pleasure to have it in my power to do something for the 
only college in my native State, which has done so much to establish a sound 
literary character in the country." 

Dartmouth has done her full proportion in educating for the pulpit, the bar, the 
healing art, and the Senate, good and great men who have done honor to their 
names, to the college, and to the country. 

May New Hampshire long continue to send forth from her literary emporium, 
men who will dispense among their fellows, religion, law, and the other arts and 
sciences, in simplicity, purity and truth. 

I wish continued success to the institution ; health and happiness to the officers 
and students thereunto belonging. 

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your most obedient, most humble 
servant, Samuel Appleton. 

His noble sentiment at our Centennial will be noticed in 
our account of that event. 
40 



314 FAMILY HISTORY. 

With the infirmities of more than fourscore years upon him, 
he still retains an elasticity of spirits, and a mental vigor only 
to be secured by a life of temperance and active usefulness. 
Long may he be spared, with his noble heart and his almost 
unbounded but well-discriminating charities ; his name is 
honorable alike to the city of his residence and the town 
where he first drew his breath. 

MosES Appleton, (son of Isaac,) b. Mar. 17, 1773 ; was 
fitted for college by Mr. Hubbard, and graduated at Dart- 
mouth College in 1791, and pursued his medical studies a 
part of the time with Governor Brooks at Medford. He re- 
ceived his Medical diploma from the Mass. Medical Society in 
1796. He settled in Waterville, Me., the same year, and 
commenced the practice of medicine, which he continued till 
within a few years of his death. A citizen of Waterville for 
more than half a century, he did much for its advancement 
and prosperity. 

Uniformly kind to the poor, and generous to those who re- 
quired his professional services, upright and honest in his 
character, frank and affable in his disposition and manners, 
he was beloved by his friends, and respected for his many 
virtues. His departure was mourned by a wide circle of ac- 
quaintances. He died in 1849, 96. 76. 

Nathan Appleton, (son of Isaac) was born in 1779. In 
early life he availed himself of the advantages of our Acade- 
my, and there laid the foundations of a good education, and 
of future usefulness. He pursued his studies and was fitted 
for Dartmouth College, where he entered, in 1794; but he 
changed his views, and left the pursuits of literature to em- 
bark in mercantile business witVi his brother Samuel, in Bos- 
ton. With enterprising views, untiring industry and a mind 
soon well stored with practical knowledge, he became a suc- 
cessful merchant. 

In a few years he made a visit to Europe, in order to extend 
his business relations; this gave him an opportunity of prac- 
tically observing the subjects of commerce and manufactures 
in their then most-advanced condition ; and to his observing 



APPLETON FAMILY. 315 

mind must have had an influence on his subsequent career in 
life. 

Mr. A. was one of the original proprietors of the Waltham 
Cotton Manufactory, where the power-loom was first put in 
operation in this country in 1815. This, more than anything 
else, gave the great impetus to the cotton manufacture; but 
in a few years we find him looking forward to farther progress, 
and with his far-seeing views, he had satisfied himself that 
the time had come for the manufacturing of colored prints in 
this country ; and, in company with the late Patrick T. Jack- 
son and Kirk Boott, they made purchase of the water power 
at Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimack River, and a large 
part of the land adjacent, on which the city of Lowell now 
stands ; and here, through his forecast and financial skill, com- 
bined with that of his associates, has grown up, almost as by 
magic, perhaps the proudest monument in our country, of well 
directed enterprise and skill. 

Mr. A. was the projector and largest proprietor of the Ham- 
ilton Company, where new varieties of goods were first made 
in this country ; the acting superintendent, Samuel Batchel- 
der, Esq., and several overseers of which, were from this town. 
He was largely interested in the various manufacturing estab- 
lishments, as they successively grew up in Lowell. 

In 1830, Mr. A. was elected to represent his adopted city in 
the National councils.* While in Congress, Mr. A. was not 
a very frequent debater, but whenever he did speak, was 
listened to with much attention. His speeches, as published 
in Gale's & Seaton's Register of debates, will ever remain as 
models of straight-forward, business-like documents, remark- 
able for their concise logic and convincing arguments, every 
word of which is of lasting value, and no man ever left Con- 
gress with a better reputation of what a legislator should be, 
to represent the varied interests of Boston. 

Since his retirement to private life, many articles of much 
value and of an enduring character, have emanated from his 



*He served through the 22d Congress, but declined re-election. He was also 
chosen in 1842, to supply a vacancy in the 27th Congress, occasioned by the 
resignation of Mr Winthrop. 



316 FAMILY HISTORY. 

pen, mostly on Currency and Political Economy. They have 
been well appreciated by those who are competent to judge on 
these important subjects. 

A few years since, Mr. A. received a complimentary degree 
from Harvard College, which was as honorable to the Institu- 
tion as to the recipient. 

During the last year he has again visited Europe, and spent 
some time in examining those villages in the father-land made 
interesting by having been in former days the residence of the 
ancestry of his family. 

Mr. A. has, for many years, been a man of wealth, of 
which he has made a noble use. His assistance has been 
freely given to many of our institutions of learning and char- 
ity, and his native town has felt his beneficence. His son, 
Thomas G., is an Amateur Artist of much taste and refine- 
ment. One of his daughters is the wife of the celebrated 
Poet, Professor Longfellow, and another is married to Mr. 
Mackintosh, son of the late Sir James Mackintosh, now Gov- 
ernor of one of the British West India Islands. 

Eben Appleton (son of Isaac,) was born in 1784. He 
commenced business in Boston, in copartnership with Daniel 
P. Parker, as importers of British goods. The nature of their 
business led to his residence in England, where he married. 
He was, for many years, established as a commission merchant 
in London, but returned to America during the war. In 1826 
he took charge of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company at 
Lowell, where he died in 1833. 

The annexed obituary was written by Chief Justice Shaw, 
who was one of his early associates. 

It is a few weeks only, since the newspapers announced the 
death of Mr. Eben Appleton, in the town of Lowell, formerly a 
merchant of this city. We have seen no other public notice of his 
decease, than the mere annunciation of the fact, thouQ^li there may 
have been some other. But we think it deserves to be more gen- 
erally known, as it was to those who knew him best, that with the 
more excellent qualifications of the heart, he possessed talent, ge- 
nius and taste of a very high order, which, had his attention not 
been attracted, and strongly attracted, to other pursuits, would have 
placed him in a high rank among the literary characters of his time. 

Mr. Appleton was the son of a respectable farmer of New Ips- 



APPLETON FAMILY. 317 

wich, in the State of New Hampshire. He was early enured to 
those habits of industry, and of energetic and persevering effort, 
which without the aid of external advantages, have carried forward 
so many of the distinguished men of New England in a career of 
successful enterprise. Having early discovered and indulged a 
decided literary taste, all the leisure time which could be properly 
withdrawn from the more active pursuits of business, were devoted 
to the cultivation of his mind and taste, to the reading of the best 
and purest of the English authors, and to the study of several of 
the modern languages. 

His taste for poetry, though not exclusive, was strongly marked ; 
and his own numerous and various poetical productions, were char- 
acterized by great ease, elegance and purity. Upon his early en- 
trance into life, and before he had become exclusively occupied in 
the cares of business, the periodicals of this and other cities were 
often enriched by the productions of his pen. The Port Folio, 
then recently commenced at Philadelphia, under the editorship of 
Mr. Dennie, a publication which led the van, in that long line of 
reviews and literary periodicals, which have done so much to give 
life and reality, energy and refinement, to American literature, de- 
rived something of its early and high character, in its poetical 
department, from the articles contributed by him. They were 
generally original works, and mostly of a satirical or didactic cast ; 
but many of them consisted of translations or rather free poetical 
versions from the French and German. 

But he was not long destined to follow in the path that opened 
to him so brightly. He was induced by the most flattering pros- 
pects of success, to forego the attractions of elegant literature, for 
the more solid and substantia] rewards of commercial enterprise. 
Having a resident partner here, his mercantile business led him to 
pass sometime in the Southern States, and in Europe, and these 
opportunities of enlarging his knowledge, both of men and of books, 
were not lost upon his active and inquiring mind. 

Mr. Appleton for several years resided in England, where he es- 
tablished himself as an American merchant. Having returned to 
this country at about the time of the commencement of the great 
manufacturing establishments at Lowell, his thorough and intimate 
acquaintance with all that belongs to the fabric, as well as to the 
traffic in English goods, led him to take a deep interest in the im- 
provement and perfection of our own manufactures of the same 
articles ; and some years since he removed to Lowell, and took 
charge of the concerns of the Hamilton Company, one of the large 
and flourishing cotton manufactories of that town, in which he 
continued to the period of his decease. 



318 



FAMILY HISTORY. 




Residence of Mrs. David Everett. 

" David Everett^ was born at Princeton, Mass., in 1769, and 
was early left an orphan, his father having fallen in military service 
in the war of the Revolution. He lived and was under the guard- 
ian care of relatives at Wrentham, whence he went to the New Ips- 
wich Academy at about the age of twenty-one. He graduated at 
Dartmouth College in 1795, and on that occasion had the honor of 
the valedictory poem, in which he predicted of our country as fol- 
lows : 

' The Muse prophetic views the coming day, 

When federal laws beyond the line shall sway ; 

Where Spanish indolence inactive lies, 

And every art and every virtue dies, — 

Where pride and avarice their empire hold, 

Ignobly great, and poor amid their gold, — 

Columbia's genius shall the mind inspire, 

And fill each breast with patriotic fire. 

Nor east nor western oceans shall confine 

The generous flame that dignifies the mind ; 

O'er all the earth shall Freedom's banner wave, 

The tyrant blast, and liberate the slave ; 

Plenty and peace shall spread from pole to pole, 

Till earth's grand family possess one soul.' 

Having studied law with John M. Forbes, he entered the bar in 
Boston, and had an office in Court-street, in company with the noted 
Thomas O. Selfridge, who killed Charles Austin, in State-street ; 
in ISOl was poet for the Phi Beta Kappa celebration at Cambridge ; 
in 1802 he removed to Amherst, N. H., and remained in that town 

* This article is extracted, by permission of the author, from a very interesting 
work, just published, by James S. Loring, entitled " The Hundred Boston 
Orators." 



APPLETON FAMILY. 319 

until 1807, when he returned to Boston, and established the Boston 
Patriot in 1609, devoted to the interests of the Democratic party. 
It was in this paper that President John Adams, who had become 
disaffected towards the Federal party, Avrote historical reminiscences 
and political essays. 

Mr. Everett was author of a very agreeable little work, entitled 
' Common Sense in Dishabille,' written after the manner of Noah 
Webster's Prompter, which should be published in a tasteful form, 
and widely scattered. He wrote dramatic pieces, one of which — 
' Daranzel, or the Persian Patriot' — was performed in ISOO at the 
Federal-street Theatre. Mr. Everett early engaged in politics, and 
wrote in the Boston Gazette over the signature of ' Junius Ameri- 
canus.' He was at this period warm in the interests of the Federal 
party ; but he took sides, in the great division of the party between 
President Adams, on the one hand, and that section of the Federal 
party known as the Essex Junto, and inclined in opposition to the 
latter. Mr. Everett married Dorothy, daughter of Dea. Isaac Ap- 
pleton, Dec. 29, 1799. In 1811 Mr. Everett published the first 
number of a Demonstration on the Divinity of the Scriptures in the 
fulfilment of the Prophecies. In 1812 Mr. E. espoused the cause 
of De Witt Clinton for the presidency, in opposition to James Mad- 
ison, thus returning to the Federal party. He conducted, also, 
' The Yankee,' and engaged in ' The Pilot,' which survived but a 
brief period. In 1813 he removed to Marietta, Ohio, where, before 
succeeding in establishing a proposed newspaper, he died, Dec. 21, 
1813, aged forty-four years. 

Mr. Everett had a sprightliness of mind, with a liberal share of 
wit ; rare poetic taste, as his poems show ; and was a racy, pungent 
writer, admirably fitted for popular effect. Mr. Everett, in the win- 
ter previous to entering Dartmouth College, in 1791, when a teacher 
in the Grammar School at New Ipswich, prepared a little poem to 
be recited at an exhibition got up in the Academic style, composed 
expressly for E phi-aim H. Farrar, to be spoken by him on the occa- 
sion, when only seven years of age. We quote this curiosity, as it 
appears in Bingham's Columbian Orator. It is a rare sample of 
juvenile wit, and will be famous so long as a youthful orator ap- 
pears on the floor of a school or an academy : 

' You'd scarce expect one of my age 
To speak in public on the stage; 
And if I chance to fall below 
Demosthenes or Cicero, 
Don't view me with a critic's eye. 
But pass my imperfections by. 
Large streams from little fountains flow; 
Tall oaks from little acorns grow; 
And though I now am small and young. 
Of judgment weak, and feeble tongue. 
Yet all great learned men like me. 
Once learned to read their A, B, C. 



320 FAMILY HISTORY. 

But why may not Columbia's soil 

Rear men as great as Britain's Isle, — 

Exceed what Greece and Rome have done, 

Or any land beneath the sun ? 

May n't Massachusetts boast as great 

As any other sister State ? 

Or Where's the town go far and near. 

That does not find a rival here ? 

Or where's the buy, but three feet high, 

Who 's made improvement more than I ? 

These thoughts iuspire my youthful mind 

To be the greatest of mankind : 

Great, not like Cresar, stained with blood. 

But only great as I am good.' 

The boy who spoke this simple speech was Ephraim Hartwell 
Farrar, who was writing-master, in 1813, in the elementary school 
of Lawson Lyon, located on the north side of Dr. Channing's church 
in Boston, where sons of our most distinguished families were 
educated ; among whom were boys who have risen to eminence in 
public life, such as Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, and Rev. William Fur- 
ness of Philadelphia ; Alexander Young, D. D., Rev. Samuel J. 
May, Rev. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rev. William P. Lunt, William 
H. Gardiner, John Everett, William Parsons, son of the late chief- 
justice, the Gilberts, brokers in State-street, and James S. Loring. 
Master Farrar was remarkable for a mild and even temper. A 
gentler soul never breathed, and his benignant light stroke of the 
rattan, was a striking contrast to the eight severe blows of the but- 
ton-wood ferule vigorously applied by Master Lyon, the terror of 
the school. As posterity will ever desire to know the history of the 
boy for whom the inimitable speech was written, we will relate that 
he was the youngest son of Rev. Stephen Farrar, the first minister 
of New Ipswich, who graduated at Harvard College, 1755. He 
was born Dec. 8, 1783, and married Phebe Parker in 1825, widow 
of Jonas C. Champney, by whom he had one daughter. His wife 
died in 1848 ; and Master Farrar died in New Ipswich, Jan. 8, 
1851. After being many years a teacher in Boston, he became a 
partner in trade with a Mr. Carleton ; and, on returning to his 
native town, he became the town-clerk, which station he occupied 
till within a few years of his decease. He was educated at the 
New Ipswich Academy ; and it was at one of the annual exhibi- 
tions of that institution when he was called on to recite this beau- 
tiful poem. It is interesting to remark, that at the centennial 
celebration in that town, September, 1850, when he was an old 
man, he was called out again to personate the youth for whom that 
effusion was written ; and, immediately rising, merely repeated the 
first two lines : 

' You 'd scarce expect one o^ my age 
To speak in public on the stage — ' 

which excited the risibles of the audience. 



APPLETON FAMILY. 321 

We cannot be parted from these pleasant reminiscences without 
introducing Master Farrar's own criticisms on the subject. In 
writing- from New Ipswich, under date of July 27, 1S49, he relates 
that Mr. Everett kept the grammar school in the centre of this 
town, and got up an exhibition in the academic style, and at this 
time wrote the lines expressly for and to be spoken by the writer of 
this communication, then a little boy seven years of age. ' The 
"Lines" were handed to me in manuscript. After they had been 
given to me, I had always considered them as in a sense belonging 
to me, to my native State, my native town. When, therefore, I 
saw, in the printed copy, the substitution of two words for two in 
the original, namely, " Massachusetts " and " sister," for " New 
Hampshire " and " Federal," I thought there was either a gross 
mistake in the printer, or an infringement upon my rights ; this 
changing the place broke up all my former associations, and entire- 
ly destroyed the intrinsic merits of the piece. Whether this was 
done by the author or not, I am not able to say. I am rather in- 
clined to think the latter was, for he afterwards became a politician 
of the Jefferson school, edited a paper called " The Patriot," and 
the word "Federal" became extremely obnoxious to many of that 
party. This, however, I never quarrelled much about. But that 
my native State should receive such an insult, I felt very indignant. 
It seemed to my youthful heart to sa}% there was one man who 
might possibly have some doubts whether New Hampshire could 
boast as great as any other federal State, — so, to end all dispute 
everywhere, he would put in Massachusetts ; but, after a residence 
of several years in the very heart of that State, thus becoming more 
expatriated from the one and naturalized to the other, and seeing, 
also, that every little boy read the piece just as if it were his own, 
I gave over the contest, and became reconciled to the change, with 
this proviso, that, from that time, every boy who should speak the 
piece should have the liberty to substitute his own State.' 



41 



322 



FAMILY HISTORY. 








Residence of Joseph Barrett, Es-q. 



Jesse Appleton, son of Francis, was born Nov. 17, 1772. He 
fitted for college in the academy of his native town, and in 17SS, at 
the age of sixteen, entered Dartmouth College. He early gave 
promise of uncommonly amiable and delicate feelings, and of a vig- 
orous intellect. In college, he sustained a high reputation as a 
scholar. Deficient in no department of the course, his preference 
was for those studies which address the taste. As a classical 
scholar and writer, he was regarded as inferior to no one in his class. 
It appears that at this early period, he laid the foundation of those 
mental habits for which he was remarkable during his life. He 
passed, moreover, through the temptations of college without censure 
or reproach, always exhibiting that delicate sense of propriety and 
keen moral perception which characterized his mature years. 

After he left college, he was employed, for nearly two years, as 
an instructor of youth at Dover and Amherst, N. H. In this occu- 
pation he was highly successful. His discriminating mind, his 
general loveliness of character, his delicate humor, and his engaging 
manners, made him the ornament of the social circle. He pursued 
his theologieal studies under the direction of the venerable and 
eminent Joseph Lathrop, D. D., of West Springfield. His papers 
of this period, comprising dissertations on various topics of theology, 
give evidence that he was a diligent and successful student. Few 



APPLETON FAMILY. 323 

pupils in theology have won the confidence and affection of an in- 
structor to so high a degree as did Mr. Appleton ; and few returned 
that interest with such unmingled respect and love. Dr. Lathrop 
did not conceal the high hopes which he cherished of the future 
usefulness and eminence of his pupil. Mr. Appleton maintained, 
until the death of his preceptor, an uninterrupted correspondence 
with him, consulting him freely on the many perplexing subjects 
relating both to doctrine and the pastoral relation, which present 
themselves in the labors and studies of an active minister. 

Mr. Appleton began to preach in the summer of 1795, and such Avas 
the opinion then entertained of his talents and piety, that some 
clergymen in Massachusetts who did not consider him as agreeing 
fully in sentiment with themselves, strongly recommended him to 
certain vacant parishes, as a candidate for settlement. During the 
two years that he was a candidate, he preached in several towns 
both in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. From Leicester, Ms., 
and Hampton, N. H., he received earnest invitations to settle in 
the ministry. He thought it to be his duty to accept the call from 
the latter place. He was ordained at Hampton, on the 22d of 
March, 1797. 

Introduced into a new and important station, he entered upon the 
discharge of its duties with earnestness and a deep sense of his 
accountability. He became at once a close, uniform and systematic 
student. He had indeed already laid the foundation of those ad- 
mirable habits of study which he preserved through life. In the 
distribution of his time, he was strictly methodical; and nothing 
but unavoidable avocations was allowed to intrude upon the plans 
which he had formed. There was an order, a regularity in his 
various pursuits, that beautifully corresponded with the structure 
of his mind and the symmetry of his character. " Theology was 
no less from inclination than a sense of duty, the principal object of 
pursuit ; and he left abundant evidence, not only in the reputation 
which he acquired while in the ministry, but in his discourses, in 
his communications to the religious periodicals of the time, and in his 
private papers, that, unwilling to confine himself within the com- 
mon range of the profession, he from the first sought to explore the 
whole field of theological learning, not from motives of ambition, 
but rather from an ardent love of truth and a deep sense of his 
accountability for the use he made of the powers which had been 
given him, and of his means of improvement and usefulness. By 
the time he left Hampton, he was a theologian accomplished beyond 
his years. 

Mr. Appleton was married in 1800 to Elizabeth, daughter of the 
Hon. Robert Means of Amherst, N. H. In her he found a friend 
worthy of the connection, which for nearly twenty years so happily 
subsisted between them. They had six children, three sons and 
three daughters. The youngest child, a son, was very suddenly 



324 FAMILY HISTORY. 

taken from them, when three years old, in October, 1817. The 
eldest son, a graduate of Bowdoin College, while pursuing the 
study of the law, under the charge of Stephen Farley, Esq., of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, was seized by an attack of bilious fever, and died in 
October, 1830. Many cheering promises and fond hopes were thus 
suddenly cut off. 

Mr. Appleton, while at Hampton, was a trustee of Phillips Acad- 
emy, Exeter, and in that office manifested much activity. He was 
especially interested in the subject of theological education. While 
a parish minister, he directed the studies of several persons who 
were pursuing a course of theological education, and never failed 
of securing the highest respect and affection of his pupils. In 1803, 
he was one of the most prominent candidates for the chair of the- 
ology at Cambridge, an election in which the deepest interest was 
felt, and as the result of which Dr. Ware was chosen. 

When Mr. Appleton entered on his ministry, he had not formed 
settled opinions on some topics of theology. In a discourse de- 
livered February 22, 1807, he remarks: "In reviewing the ten 
years of my ministry, if any cause of self-congratulation is pre- 
sented, there are abundant causes of self-reproach. I have, indeed, 
from the beginning, preached what I believed to be the leading 
truths of the Bible ; and if I have, of late years, insisted more than 
formerly, on some of its peculiar doctrines, it is because the impor- 
tance of these doctrines has risen in my apprehension." Some of 
the more abstruse and perplexing topics of our faith he does not ap- 
pear to have discussed in his sermons. This is in part, doubtless, 
to be ascribed to his habitual caution in the expression of opinions, 
which were not the result of long, patient and profound reflection 
and investigation. As a preacher, he was entirely free from all dis- 
play of learning or study of effect. His manner was chaste, dig- 
nified, earnest and very impressive. Most of his sermons were 
written while he was at Hampton. Though designed for the people 
of a secluded parish, they were prepared with great care and accu- 
racy. He made it a rule to write but one sermon a week. Monday 
being devoted to pastoral visits, he vvas accustomed to begin his 
sermon on Tuesday, and end it on Friday. He also meditated his 
prayers. He diligently stored his mind with a great variety of ma- 
terials adapted to all the occasions of pastoral duty. Those who 
heard him conduct the public devotions, were impressed with the 
profound reverence, the elevation, fervor and copiousness which 
characterized them. 

Besides the composition of his sermons, he also contributed to 
some of the religious periodical publications of the time. He was 
instrumental in establishing a work called the Piscataqua Evangeli- 
cal Magazine, which was conducted by a number of clergymen as- 
sociated for the purpose. He was also an able contributor to the 
Panoplist, chiefly on points of doctrine His favorite signatures 
were Leighton and Owen. 







/■„/■ /•! l/'f t,„.-,;„„ Cii'i'I'-rliJ /:,, 



APPLETON FAMILY. 325 

In 1S07, on the decease of the Rev. Dr. McKeen, the first Presi- 
dent of Bowdoin College, Mr, Appleton was chosen his successor. 
After much and anxious deliberation, he concluded to accept the 
appointment. He was inaugurated in December, 1S07, and entered 
immediately on the duties of his office. He thus exchanged a life 
of comparative quiet, for one of unceasing solicitude and oftentimes 
of embarrassment and perplexity. The office of President of any 
of our colleges, at any time, is not one of mere literary ease and 
honor. But in the early part of the present century, there were 
certain habits prevalent in society, which made the office in ques- 
tion one of peculiar perplexity and hardship. Ardent spirits, then 
a very common beverage, were the source of innumerable troubles 
in college, and were not unfrequently the cause of the utter ruin of 
some of the most promising scholars. Bowdoin College was then 
in its infancy, situated in a remote part of New England, in a dis- 
trict of an older and somewhat distant State. The value of a 
liberal education was not, at that time, generally appreciated, its 
advantages being confined to a great extent to the sons of the rich. 
The funds of the college were, moreover, small and in an embar- 
rassed state. A large part of them consisted of unproductive lands 
in the wilderness. 

President Appleton brought to his work a deep sense of responsi- 
bility both for the literary reputation, and the moral and religious 
welfare of those under his care. He also possessed great integrity, 
firmness, discretion, true love of learning, cultivated taste, and a 
delicacy and refinement of character, which are hardly ever sur- 
passed. Such a man could not but gain the respect and affection 
both of the students and of his associates in the government. 

There being no professor of intellectual and moral philosophy, or 
of rhetoric aud oratory, the care of these departments devolved, for 
the most part, upon president Appleton, and during the greater por- 
tion of his official career, he conducted the exercises of the students 
in both of them. Instruction in Butler's Analogy and in Paley's 
Evidences, was always his peculiar province. His decided predilec- 
tion for those studies which relate to the intellectual and moral na- 
ture of man, imparted to the recitations in those departments, as 
conducted by him, a high degree of interest and success. The text- 
books, besides the two just mentioned, were Locke on the Human 
Understanding, and Dugald Stewart's Elements of Intellectual Phi- 
losophy. Mr. Appleton never permitted himself to enter the class 
room without having thoroughly investigated the subject of the 
lesson. He usually conducted such investigations with pen in hand ; 
and to insure precision and clearness on his part, he was accustomed 
to write his questions in the margin of his book. These were framed 
with much care and skill, so as to fix the attention more on the sub- 
ject under discussion, than on the author. The students well knew, 
that ignorance or sloth could not escape the severe scrutiny they 



326 FAMILY HISTORY. 

were obliged to undergo. The recitation in Butler's Analogy, in 
particular, can never be forgotten by the pupils of president Appleton. 

President Appleton was fond of classical studies, and read the 
best authors, both Latin and Greek, with accuracy and taste. He 
took a deep interest in this department of the college course, and 
excelled as an instructor in it. At different times, he heard the 
recitations in most of the Latin and Greek authors at that period 
read in our colleges, and his manner of conducting these exercises 
was marked by the peculiarities which have been already noted. To 
the passage he always gave a thorough examination ; minute accu- 
racy in the forms and syntax was required, as also in the prosody, a 
point then and now too much neglected. The partiality of the 
President for Livy, was proverbial among the students, who were 
wont to say, that were an edict published, requiring all other books 
to be destroyed, next after the Bible, with Butler in one pocket, and 
Livy in another, he would be content. 

President Appleton had great uniformity and firmness in admin- 
istering the discipline of the institution. So far as was practicable, 
he maintained a familiar acquaintance with the standing of every 
student; so that whenever there were appearances of deterioration 
in any one, the proper remedy might be promptly applied. His su- 
pervision of the operations of the whole system was universal and 
unremitting. His warnings and counsels, conveyed with parental 
solicitude and kindness, not unfrequently excited feelings of the 
liveliest gratitude, of which he subsequently received many testimo- 
nials. Near the end of his life he declared that he had never re- 
pented a decision in regard to college discipline, except in one 
instance, when he yielded to the wishes of his associates, and the 
event proved, that the opinion which he had previously formed was 
correct. His interest in the students was not confined to official 
intercourse. Many can recal to mind frequent acts of kindness, 
always conferred in the most delicate manner, experienced from him 
and his family. The sick were cheered by their active .sympathy, 
and, in some instances, even where there was no peculiar claim, 
were taken to his house and nursed with tender care. 

Dr. Appleton, from the first, conducted an exercise in the Scrip- 
tures on Sabbath evening in the chapel, in which all the students 
participated. Several volumes of his questions, in manuscript, 
used on these occasions, interspersed with occasional remarks, and 
prepared with characteristic care, are yet preserved. Most of his 
theological lectures, delivered in the chapel, on Thursday afternoon, 
are preserved in the college library, in three bound volumes. 

In addition to the perplexing cares and the multiplied labors of 
the presidency. Dr. Appleton preached much, and discharged a 
great amount of pastoral duty for the Congregational society in 
Brunswick. His presence was sought in ecclesiastical councils, 
pspf>cially when perplexing questions were likely to occur. That 



APPLETON FAMILY. 327 

his services were highly valued, was evident by the frequency with 
which they were solicited. Within a few years, he was invited to 
preach, not only before the Bible, Missionary, Education and Peace 
Societies of Maine, and repeatedly at meetings of citizens, asso- 
ciated to suppress immoralities and to promote the better observance 
of the Sabbath, but also before the American Board of Commission- 
ers for Foreign Missions, of which he was a member, before the 
Legislature of Massachusetts at the annual election, before the 
Convention of the Congregational clergy of Massachusetts, before 
the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, 
and, had his health permitted, he would in the year in which he 
died, have addressed the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl- 
edge. He also preached several ordination sermons. He received 
the honorary degree of Doctor in Divinity from Dartmouth College, 
and, in 1810, the same honor from Harvard University. He was a 
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

But we have now reached the close of his honorable and useful 
life. The effects of his excessive labors and his habits of unre- 
mitted application, upon a system which was not invigorated and 
refreshed by useful exercise, soon became too apparent. About the 
time of his losing a very dear son, in October, 1817, he took a 
severe cold, from the effects of which he never entirely recovered. 
No serious apprehensions were, however, entertained respecting 
him until early in 1819, when, greatly to the concern of his person- 
al friends, and the friends of the college, he gave too plain indica- 
tions of the assaults of disease. His complaints were a slight 
cold, great hoarseness and debility. His symptoms indicated a 
disease of the larynx, which advanced with fearful rapidity. He 
was unable to preside in the college exhibition in May. It was 
hoped that a journey which he took in the spring vacation, as far 
as Amherst, would produce a favorable change. From this place 
he addressed a letter to the students, full of the tenderest affection 
and the most impressive warnings. He soon after returned to 
Brunswick, his health not essentially improved. During the sum- 
mer and the first part of autumn, hopes of his restoration were at 
times indulged. On the 12th of October, a profuse hemorrhage 
rendered his recovery entirely hopeless. 

It was mercifully ordered, that his illness should not be attended 
with severe pain ; and that until the last few days of his life, he 
should be in the entire possession of his understanding. He en- 
joyed in a greater degree than in health, the consolations and hopes 
of the gospel. He often said, " Of this I am sure, that salvation is 
all of grace." " I would make no mention of any thing which I 
have ever thought, or said, or done ; but only of this, that God so 
loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. The 
atonement is the only ground of hope. " In general, I am quite 



338 FAMILY HISTORY. 

comfortable ; but not uniformly so, though I have seldom what may 
be called distress or great anxiety. I have sumetimes sweet views 
of God's holy providence. But I am, indeed, a poor sinner, lying 
at the foot of sovereiga mercy. Most emphatically, and from my 
soul, do I renounce all hope in any thing done by myself as a 
ground of justification. I fly, I fly with my whole soul to the blood 
of a crucified Saviour." In a letter of July 1st, to the Rev. Dr. 
Tappan of Augusta, he writes : " I am not indifferent to life. How 
can I be with such a family as I have ; so young and so dependent 
on parental attention and guidance ? But the event is with God ; 
and I hope, that I am willing it should be so. I am not very anx- 
ious as to the event. I hope it is my desire that Christ may be 
honored, whether by my life or by my death." In an interview 
with a ministerial friend, he says : " I have been the happiest man 
in the world in my domestic connections. I have endeavored faith- 
fully to instruct my children, and they have conducted so as greatly 
to endear themselves to me. I shall leave them but little property, 
but they will be in the hands of Him who made them. God has 
been uniformly good to me all my life, and it would now be very 
unreasonable for me to be unwilling to obey his summons." From 
the window of his chamber he frequently looked at the college 
buildings. One day, while fixing his eye upon them, he exclaimed, 
" Precious objects have ye been to me, but I resign you all for my 
God." 

During the greater part of the last five days, his mind was some- 
what disordered ; although at times he appeared perfectly rational, 
and uttered many interesting expressions. At length, after a long 
and painful struggle, about eight o'clock in the evening, Nov. 24, 
1S19, he fell asleep in Jesus. The knell of the chapel bell, which 
broke the stillness of the evening, announcing to the college family 
and the neighborhood his departure, fell with leaden weight on many 
hearts. 

Every mark of respect was paid to his memory. A sermon was 
preached at his funeral by the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Tappan of Augus- 
ta. Prayers were oflTered by the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Gillet of Hal- 
lowell. The body was deposited, with many sighs and tears, in the 
ancient cemetery, a mile south from the college plain. In the year 
following, it was removed to the new cemetery, opened in the pine 
grove in the rear of the colleges. A marble monument was erected 
over it by the Boards of college, with an appropriate Latin inscrip- 
tion prepared by Prof. Newman. 

Soon after the death of President Appleton, a volume was 
published, containing some of his theological lectures, and a 
few sermons, with a sketch of his life and character, by Dr. 
Tappan of Augusta. In 1837, two volumes of his works, 



AINSWORTH FAMILY, 



329 



including a well written memoir of his life, by his son-in-law, 
Prof. Packard, was published. Interesting notices of him are 
to be found in the Quarterly Register, and some other period- 
icals, from which the foregoing have been extracted. 




AiNswoRTH, William, (s. of Rev. Laban Ainsworth) was 
born at Jaffrey, grad. at Dartmouth College, studied law and 
practiced for several years in his native town, where he 
enjoyed the respect of all. He was appointed Cashier of the 
Manufacturers' Bank in 1S33, and removed to this town ; in 
this office he gave great satisfaction and enjoyed the confi- 
dence of the community. In 1842 he was elected to repre- 
sent the town in the Legislature, and proceeded to Concord 
for that purpose, accompanied by his wife, where he died, but 
was interred in the old burying ground here. His father, 
who was ordained at Jatfrey in 1783, is still living. His son, 
Frederick S. grad. at D. College, pursued his medical studies 
at Paris ; is now a practising physician in Boston. His 
daughter m. Lieut. Green, U. S. Navy. The view at the 
head of this article represents the family residence. 
42 



330 



FAMILY HISTORY. 




Barrett, Charles, was descended from the respectable 
family of that name in Concord, where Humphrey Barrett, 
who came from England as early as 1640, settled. He left 
four sons, one of whom, Humphrey, m. Elizabeth Payne in 
1661. They had two sons and two daughters, one of which, 

Benjamin, m. Lydia ■ , in 1705. He d. in 1728, ae. 4.7. 

Children. 1. — Benjamin. 2. — Thomas. 3. — James. 4. — 
Lydia. 5. — Timothy. 6. — Mary. 7. — Stephen. 8. — Rebecca. 

Dea. Thomas m. Mary Jones, and had ch. 1. — Thomas. 
2. — Charles. 3. — Samuel. 4. — Amos. 5. — Ruth. 6. — Mary. 

Mr. Charles Barrett was born in 1740. From his youth he 
possessed an enterprising spirit, and while a young man, he, 
in connection with his brother, built the grist and saw mills 
in what is now Mason Village. This property he soon after 
disposed of, to his cousin. Deacon Amos Dakin, and in 1764 
came to this town. He purchased the Farm of Joseph 
and Ebenezer BuUard, on "Knight's Hill," and soon after 
erected the house which is still standing, a sketch of which is 
at the head of this article. After residing there about sixteen 
years, he found the land had been so much exhausted as to 
bear but indifterent crops, and he disposed of the place in 
1781, to Mr. Knights. Soon after, he purchased the farm of 
Joseph Kidder in the middle of the town. Here he erected 
the house now occupied by Doctor Cochran, in which he ever 
after resided. 



BARRETT FAMILY. 331 

At the commencement of the Revokition, Mr. Barrett, by- 
energy and industry, had made himself one of the most 
prominent men of the town ; but, hke several of our leading 
men, he had strong doubts of the measures then adopted by 
the ardent whigs. Having always been accustomed to state 
his opinions boldly and fearlessly, he often became involved 
in controversies with many of the patriot party, and a large 
part of the people branded him as an enemy of his country; 
and at one time, party feelings ran so high, that his principles 
were discussed in Town Meeting. 

But our people soon found, that honest opinions, however 
strongly expressed, should not be punisbed ; and as the hon- 
esty of Mr. B.'s principles had never been questioned, and he 
soon cheerfully acquiesced in the measures of the new gov- 
ernment and paid his full share towards carrying on the war, 
he regained his popularity and the confidence of his towns- 
men. He was elected a delegate to the convention to ratify 
the Constitution of the United States, and was afterwards a 
member of the Senate, and served as counsellor for one or 
more terms, was chosen Representative annually for fourteen 
years, which, more than anything else, shows the confidence 
reposed in him by his townsmen. 

Soon after the Revolution he obtained the grant of a town- 
ship of land in Lincoln County, Maine, which was for a long 
time called Barrettstown, afterwards incorporated by the 
name of Hope. Here he spent much of his time, and was 
the means of inducing many persons to emigrate there from 
this and the neighboring towns, to whom he freely distributed 
land. The settlement of a town in the then wilderness of 
Maine was, at that day, a task to try the energies of any man. 
But Mr. Barrett went into it with a will that never tired, and 
his enterprising spirit looked to results far beyond the ken of 
most men of his day. 

In 1790, he was engaged, with J. Jameson, in erecting ex- 
tensive mills on the falls of George's River. Soon after, he 
projected an extensi ve course of improvement of this river, so 
as to enable loaded boats to reach his township from tide 
water. 

In 1791, he was empowered, by an Act of the Legislature 



332 FAMILY HISTORY. 

of Massachusetts, to construct Locks and Canals, to improve 
the navigatiou of that river, and to reimburse the expense, by 
tolls on the boats and rafts that should pass. He commenced 
this arduous task, and after spending two or three years, and 
encountering almost incredible difficulties, he had succeeded 
in bnildiug, on a plan of his own, a series of Locks, the first 
in New England and probably in America. This had been 
done without the aid of an engineer, or any person who had 
ever seen any works of the kind. The plan was entirely 
original ; the Locks were placed in the centre or main chan- 
nel of the river, and after he had expended so much time and 
several thousand dollars, they were found to answer no prac- 
tical purpose. This caused him much mortification and 
disappointment, and in 1795, he disposed of the concern to 
the distinguished Revolutionary General, Henry Knox, who 
employed a French Engineer, who resnmed the work, and, 
after another large outlay, and when the proprietor thought 
them complete, a freshet carried ofi" and destroyed the whole 
works. They were afterwards rebuilt. 

Although Mr. B. was a man of great physical endurance 
and industry, he returned home after the closing of this enter- 
prize, almost prostrated in body and mind by his over-exertions, 
— but his mind was too active to be long quiet, and he lost no 
opportunity of aiding in any matter that would increase the 
business of our town. He had an interest in the glasshouse 
on the Mountain, and was one of the subscribers to the Actid- 
emy, and made it a donation of a tract of wild land in 
Camden, Me., which was afterwards sold by him as agent of 
the institution, but, from some cause, nothing was realized 
from it. He may be said to have been the father of the cotton 
manufacture in this place, as Mr. Robbins, a practical ma- 
chinist, came here at his suggestion, and they, in connection 
with Benjamin Champney, Esq., erected the first cotton mill 
in the State. 

Although Mr. B. had received but a very ordinary educa- 
tion, he possessed a very strong mind, and had informed 
himself so as to cenverse well on almost any subject. He 
died Sept. 21, 1808. 

He m. Rebecca Minot, at Concord, in 1764. Ch. 1. — 




r.Tit?''hvnwsniifli 




'T-i-^^^^.^-,^^^ 



BARRETT FAMILY. 333 

Charles, b. 1765, d. 1766. 2.— Dorcas, b. 1767. d. 1818. 
3.— Charles, 2d, b. 1773, d. 1836. 4— George, b. 1777, d. 
(near New Orleans) 1812. 5. — Rebecca, b. 1774, m. Hon. 
Samuel Dana, of Groton, d. 1837. 6 — Seth, b. 1784, d. 1793. 
Mrs. B. afterwards m. Francis Cragin, and d. 1838, se. 93. 

Barrett, Charles, (s. of the above,) graduated at Dart- 
mouth College 1794, but bemg rather disinclmed to follow 
any of the learned professions, entered into a partnership with 
Mr. Samuel Appleton, and commenced trade. The business 
proved prosperous, and in 1793, Mr. Appleton left the firm for 
a wider field in Boston. In a few years after, he was fol- 
lowed by Mr. Barrett, whose ample means and business 
habits soon brought him an extensive circle of acquaintances 
and friends. Here he pursued an extensive commercial trade 
through the trying times which our commerce passed, in that 
era of non-intercourse, embargo and war, with varied success, 
till 1814, when he returned with his family to his native town, 
to enjoy once more the retirement of his beautiful mansion, 
which he had erected during his former residence, a view of 
which is to be seen on page 330, (the house on the right 
is the one built and long occupied by his father). 

In 1819. Mr. B. was induced to purchase an interest in the 
old cotton factory, and being associated with several other 
gentlemen, he procured an Act of Incorporation under the 
title of the Water Loom Factory Company ; here they erected 
the large building now standing. This promising to be a 
good investment, two other companies were formed, of which 
Mr. B. was the head and principal manager. These establish- 
ments were built near the High Bridge and at Mason Village, 
with which he was connected during his life, all of which are 
noticed under the head of manufactures. 

Mr. B.'s life was an active one ; like his father, he disliked 
to see an idle man. He was the principal man in establishing 
the Bank, and it was mainly by his exertions that the Unita- 
rian Church was erected, as also many other public improve- 
ments. He was elected to various town offices, and repre- 
sented the town for many years in the General Court. He d. 
1836, 86. 63. His wife, a lady of true grace and matronly 
accomplishments, d. in 1842, ae. 71. He m. Martha Minot at 



334 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Concord, 1800. Ch. George ; Mary Ann ; Juliet, d. young ; 
Charles ; Edward, d. 1834. 

Bartlett Samuel, a native of Reading, came here in 1770, 
purchased and settled on the lot near the Fox place, now 
owned by Richard Wheeler. He married Elizabeth Appleton; 
d. 1812, 93. 79 ; his wife d. 1817, ge. 80. 

Ch. Noah, b. in Reading. 1768, d. 1809; Elisabeth, b. 1773, 
d. 1790 ; Sarah, b. 1776, d. 1803 ; John, b. 1779, d. 1802 ; 
Mary, b. 1781. 

Noah m. about 1802, Mary Hills ; she d. 1806. Ch. George, 
b. 1802, d. 1820. John, b. 1804, and had nearly completed his 
theological studies at Andover, with a view to the ministry, 
when he was attacked with that insidious disease, consump- 
tion, which had laid in the grave all his family, warning him 
of his approaching fate. He went South, accompanied by a 
friend, but died on the way, in New Jersey, at the age of 
about 22 years. The family was now extinct, and he be- 
queathed the remainder of his patrimony to the American 
Board of Missions. Both he and his brother were young men 
of much promise, and beloved by their acquaintance. Their 
father, Dea. Noah Bartlett, was a prominent man in the town. 
His upright and manly course had secured the confidence of 
his fellow citizens, who ever found in him a prudent and a 
safe counsellor. Called by them at an early age to the re- 
sponsible and arduous duties of conducting the business of the 
town as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and of repre- 
senting them in the Legislature, he never neglected or betrayed 
the trust reposed in him, but ever served them faithfully. He 
was elected Town Clerk and first Selectman in 1798, one or 
both of which offices he filled until his death. In 1803 he was 
chosen representative, and probably no other man was thought 
of to fill that office during his life. In his private and domes- 
tic character he was all that could be desired. During the 
great revival 1786 he became a member of the Rev. Mr. 
Farrar's church, being then in the 18th year of his age. He 
was a man of but few words, but a strong and vigorous wri- 
ter and deep thinker, and of truly righteous deeds. He was 
appointed deacon of the church April 30th, 1807, and his 





^^2^^^..^^^. ^^^^2 

^ 



BATCHELDER FAMILY. 335 

death, which took place two years later, was a great bereave- 
ment to them, following, as it did, so soon after that of their 
beloved Pastor. 

Batchelder, Samuel, was a native of Beverly ; he removed 
to Jaffrey at the close of the revolution, from which place he 
came here, in 1785. He commenced business here as a baker, 
built and occupied the house now owned by Mr. Benjamin 
Davis. After the opening of the turnpike, he erected and kept 
the best public house between Boston and Keene. He Avas a 
very correct and industrious man. His ch. Samuel, b. at 
Jaffrey, 1784; Peter, b. 1786 ; Betsey, b. 1789, m. M. Adams; 
William, b. 1791, d. 1811; Nancy, b. 1793, m. Rev. Phineas 
Pratt; Mary, b. 1797, m. Silas Wheeler; Serena, b. 1800, m. 
Joel Parker ; Fanny, b. 1804, m. Rev. J. Brown. Mr. B. d. 
1814, 33. 69. 

Samuel Batchelder, (son of Samuel,) was born at Jaffrey, 
in 1784, but a few weeks previous to the removal of his parents 
to this town. His education was mainly at our Academy, 
where he was noted for his studious habits. He was fond 
of reading and of committing his thoughts to paper, and early 
manifested a decided literary taste, of which the columns of 
the Portfolio, (published by Dennie at Philadelphia, and then 
the principal literary journal of our country,) bears evidence. 

From the year 1800 when he was sixteen years of age, he 
had the care of a store belonging to his father, making the 
purchases of the goods in Boston, as well as attending to the 
sales. In 1804 at the age of twenty, he commenced business 
on his own account at Peterborough, N. H. where he con- 
tinued about two years, and was afterwards about as long at 
Exeter, from which place he returned to New Ipswich and 
recommenced business there ; and early in the year 1808 be- 
came interested in the erection of the second Cotton Factory 
built in New Hampshire. 

In the winter of 1812. his store took fire at night, and was, 
with its valuable stock of goods, entirely consumed. Two 
persons, clerks in the establishment, barely escaped with their 
lives. As insurance in the country at that time was almost 



336 FAMILY HISTORY. 

unknown, this was an entire loss, and to Mr. B. a heavy blow, 
and to many men would have been ruinous; but he had well 
laid the foundation of a character for integrity and business 
talents which a calamity of this kind might try the strength of, 
but could not overthrow. In a short period he built the store 
at the corner, where he continued business while he resided 
in town. As early as 18(38 he had purchased an interest in 
the second Cotton Factory, of which he was the most ac- 
tive managing partner ; and here, in the course of years, 
he slowly, but surely, designed and carried out the manufac- 
ture of several new varieties of cotton goods, which are now 
such an article of commerce. This estabhshment was, of 
course, subject to the vicissitudes that made the earlier pe- 
riod of cotton manufacturing so precarious a business ; but 
owing mainly to his thorough system of keeping the accounts, 
and his sagacity in seeking out and turning attention to the 
mai<ing new kinds of goods, with the economy he introduced, 
it is believed it was a paying concern when ahuost every other 
establishment in the vicinity was compelled to stop. 

It was here that he acquired the rudiments of that skill 
which has since enabled him to conduct those extensive es- 
tabhshments with which he has been connected. While he 
was thus carrying forward a business of much importance to 
the place, his abilities were fully appreciated by his townsmen. 
Much of the public business fell on him, as every one felt that 
if it was once in his hands it would be done as well as it 
could be. He was repeatedly chosen to represent the town in 
the Legislature, and various other offices. 

In 1826, some of the sagacious capitalists of Boston, wlio 
had made the purchase of the site of what is now Lowell, 
had projected an establishment for the manufacture of new 
kinds of cotton goods, and were anxious to obtain the services 
of a man whose scientific skill and judgment could success- 
fully manage such a concern. Among them was one who had 
been a school-boy with Mr. B., and more recently a business 
acquaintance, and fortunately for the concern, Mr. B. was en- 
gaged. He soon after left town, much to the regret of its in- 
habitants, (for his place has never been made good,) and took 



BATCHELDER FAMILY. 337 

up his residence in what was then East Chelmsford. Under 
his directions the foundations were laid, and the structures 
erected, that constitute the Hamilton Manufacturing Corpora- 
tion; and here was a broad field for him to carry out, on a 
liberal plan, those ideas of which his efforts in this town were 
but the germ. 

The various fabrics which his genius * and skill brought 
forward, found a ready sale at remunerating prices, and soon 
became one of the staple exports of Boston. They form a large 
part of the clothing for the laboring class throughout our 
broad country, are the favorite dress of the negro of Hayti 
and Brazil, and are most extensively used throughout China 
and British India. At Lowell Mr. B. saw grow up a city with 
a rapidity till then unknown, and in which he had a most 
active part. 

In 1831, he, in company with some capitalists of Boston 
purchased the site of a cotton mill at Saco, which had been 
destroyed by fire, and there designed a large establishment. 
Here he soon removed and took the supervision, and he may 
be said to have been the soul of the enterprise. With a ma- 
tured judgment he laid out his plans on a broad scale, and 
soon had in operation an extensive establishment, in which 
was manufactured many of a similar kind of goods that he 
had introduced at Lowell. He subsequently extended his 



* Among the inventions deserving of particular notice, was a Dynamometer, 
for the measuring of steam or water-power, by S. Batchelder, Esq., of Saco. 
This is an instrument which has long been a desideratum in practical mechanics. 
It is on a principle entirely novel, yet so simple that it is no sooner seen tlian it is 
acknowledged to be fully adapted to its object. It may be made of any dimen- 
sions or strength, suited to the degree of power to be measured ; and by placing 
it in the line of communication by means of a band or gearing, between the 
water-wheel, or drum of the steam engine, and the machinery to be moved, the 
power exerted on the machinery may be exactly measured by means of a steel- 
yard and weight, which form a part of the machine. There is also connected 
with it an index to show the number of revolutions of the drum, in a given time, 
which being observed, together with the weight, the data are obtained for com- 
puting the number of pounds which would be raised one foot per minute, by the 
degree of power exerted at the time upon the machine, and transmitted through 
it to the working machinery. Whether we regard the utility, the ingenuity or 
the simplicity of the machine, it must be ranked in a high class of inventions, as 
rendering that easy of attainment which was before impracticable by any process 
universally applicable ; and we are a little surprised that in the liberal number of 
premiums awarded, no higher testimonial of approbation has been bestowed upon 
it than the award of a silver medal. — [JV. Amcr. Rev. Jan. 1850, p. 227. 

43 



338 FAMILY HISTORY, 

purchases till he had obtained nearly all the great hydraulic 
power at that place. The sites of new establishments were 
laid off and planned, and as a consequence, one of the most 
flourishing cities in that State has grown up around it. So 
judiciously had Mr. B. planned and perseveringly carried out 
his ideas, that it is probable that while under his superintend- 
ance this establishment was the most profitable one in New 
England. A few years since he retired from its active duties, 
with a competency, the reward of a long career of persevering 
industry, and fixed his residence at Cambridge, of which city 
he was soon elected a representative to the Legislature. But 
his experience had too well fitted him for usefulness to allow 
him much repose, and no man's services are more anxiously 
sought for, in many of the great enterprises of our day. As 
Treasurer of the Portsmouth Factories, and Director in an 
important Railroad, and other enterprises, with his well ripen- 
ed judgment and varied experience, he bids fair for a contin- 
ued career of usefulness. 

Mr. B. married, in 1810, Miss Mary Montgomery, and 
have now six children living, of whom John M., William, 
Isabella, and Eugene, were born in New Ipswich. 





^^/^/y ^^i /<^:/^^f'^^ came here from Westford, 

in 1751, and purchased of 
Abijah Foster what has since been known as the " Hills' 
Farm," in the centre village. He was one of the original 
members of the church formed in 1760. It is believed he 
kept a store which he sold with the farm to Mr. Hills, in 1772. 
Mr. Bates seems to have been a man of some importance ; he 
was an ardent patriot, was Chairman of the Committee of 
Inspection and Safety in 1775, in which capacity he had quite 
a controversy with Mr. Hills. He went as a lieutenant into 
the war, and was present at the capture of Burgoyne. He 
removed to Jaffrey, about 1785, and afterwards to the north- 
ern part of New York State, where he died. 

Breed, John, came from Lynnfield, and settled in the south 
part of the town about 1764, on what is still known as the 



BROWN FAMILY. 339 

" Breed farm." He reared a numerous family, two of whom 
were deaf and dumb. He d. in 1780, se. 60. 

Breed, Allen, (s. of the above,) b. in Lynnfield in 1744 ; 
after the death of his father, he remained on the paternal 
farm. The soil was fertile, and he became quite a wealthy 
farmer. He was a soldier in the Revolution for a short 
term. The seeds of consumption seem to have been in- 
herited in this family from their birth; they all fell victims 
at an early age — a long row of stones in the south burying- 
ground, tells the sad story. He d. 1806. Ch. Lydia, b. 1768 ; 
John, b. 1769, d. 1807, ee. 38 ; Elisha, b. 1771 ; Allen, b. 
1774 ; Jane, b. 1775 ; Enoch, b. 1778. 

Brl-^nt, Kendall, came here about 1762. He purchased a 
small farm of, and adjoining on the south, Col. Kidder. He 
was a blacksmith, and the shop was standing within twenty 
years ; had a son Edmund, who commanded a company from 
this town and vicinity, for a campaign in the Revolutionary 
war. Capt. Edmund d. Sept. 28, 1786, ae. 42. 



c/ '^ in 1744: m 



,) was born at Concord 
m. October 176.5, Sarah 
Wright; removed to this town the same year, and settled 
on the farm on the " Flat Mountain," where he resided for 
over half a century. While the eastern and central parts of 
the town had been sometime occupied, the western being 
more mountainous and less accessible, had remained a forest 
until about the time of his advent here, so that he and his 
neighbors had to encounter many of the difficulties of a new 
settlement, not the least of which was their annoyance from 
wolves and other wild animals; and at one period it was dan- 
gerous for a man to be out after nightfall without means of 
defence. The soil of these hills was at first quite productive, 
but after long cultivation it became exhausted, and they are 
now mostly abandoned to pasturage. At the commencement 
of the Revolution, Mr. B. was a stanch patriot, was Lieuten- 
ant of the New Ipswich company at the battle of Bunker Hill, 
and he often said, he believed he fired the last gun before the 



340 FAMILY HISTORY. 

retreat. He served eight months, often doing duty as com- 
mander, in the absence of Capt. Towne. He afterwards did 
the duty of Captain at Ticonderoga, which post was surren- 
dered about three months after his release from the service. 

After the Revohition he was often chosen to some town 
office; was prominent in organizing the Baptist church, of 
which he was the first deacon. He was a robust, energetic, 
persevering man ; was impulsive, and had a very strong 
wiU. He was a rehgious and a benevolent man, always 
ready to do his share for the support of religious institutions, 
and for the relief of the poor and suffering. His experi- 
ence, which was written down by his grandson, is quite curi- 
ous. His mind seems to have been deeply affected by read- 
ing " Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," and it no doubt had 
a great influence in forming his opinions and character. For 
a few years previous to his death, he was lame and nearly 
blind. He died in 1831, in the 88th year of his age ; his wife 
died in 1821, aged 77. She died in her chair without any 
previous illness. Their children numbered fourteen, two only 
dying in infancy, the rest living to rear families, and some of 
them are still living at an advanced age, most of them mem- 
bers of Baptist churches. Ch. : 

JosiAH, b. 1766; Joseph, b. 1767; Jonas, b. 1769, m. Lovis 
Russell, 1796 : Sarah, b. 1770, m. Reuben Brown, 1793 ; Aa- 
ron, b. 1772, m. Hannah Brown, 1795 ; Amos, b. 1774, set- 
tled in Whitingham, Vt.; Abner, b. 1776 ; Rebecca, b. 1778, 

m. Perry, settled in New York State ; Levi, b. 1780 ; 

Nathan, b. 1782, was father of the Missionary of the same 

name ; Howard, resided in Acton, d. in 1850 ; Nabby, m. 

Farnsworth, settled in New York State. 

Brown, Abner, (son of Josiah,) resided on a farm on the 
''Flat Mountain," now owned by Dr. Gibson. He was much 
respected as a man, and often employed in the business of the 
town. He had a large number of children, none of whom 
now reside here. He d. 1824, se. 48 years. 

Brown, Aaron, (son of Josiah,) m. his cousin Hannah 
Brown. He was a leading man in town affairs, was often 
elected Selectnian and to other offices, had good judgment, 



BROWN FAMILY. 341 

but of strong party feelings, and zealous in whatever cause 
he espoused, but always respected by all parties. He was, 
like his father, active in the organization of the Baptist church, 
and was also a deacon. He d. Feb. 14, 1828, se. 55. He 
left a number of children, of which only Hernion resides in 
town. Addison, another son, graduated at Harvard College, 
1826, studied Theology, and settled in the ministry at Brat- 
tleboro', Vt., where he now teaches an Academy. 

Brown, John, (son of John) was born in Concord about 
1726, m. Elizabeth Bateman there; removed to this town 
soon after the revolution, and settled on the place where their 
grandson, Mr. Herman Brown, now lives. They had ten 
children, who all lived to adult age, and had families who 
were engaged in agriculture. He d. 1803, his wife d. 1804, 
both as. 70. His children were, 

1. — Elizabeth, m. Samuel Brown of Concord. 2. — John, 
lived at the West. 3. — Asa, lived at the West. 4. — Rebecca, 
m. Josiah French, 1790, resided in Cavendish, Vt. 5. — Anna, 

m. Spaulding. 6. — Hannah, m. Aaron Brown. 7. — 

Reuben, m. Sarah Brown, resided in Canada. 8. — Hepsibeth, 
m. Stephen Davis, 1796. 9. — Polly, m. Wyman, set- 
tled in Reading, Vt. 10. — Joseph, m. Sally Preston, received 
an education, studied Theology, and for a time performed the 
duties of the ministry. He died in Vermont. 

It will be seen that the " Browns " have been quite a nu- 
merous family here. It is believed this family were descend- 
ed from Thomas Brown, who came from England and settled 
in Concord in 1640. 

Brown, Eben, born at Ipswich, Mass., 1746, his father's 
name was William. He (Eben,) married Elizabeth Perkins. 
He d. 1813 ; she d. 1837, se. 92. They had children : 

Eben, b. 1769 ; Isaac ; William ; Elizabeth ; Betsey ; all 
b. old Ipswich ; Eleazar, b. 1778 ; Lucy ; James ; Susan ; 
Sarah ; Abigail, b. at New Ipswich. 

Brown, Eleazer, son of Eben, born 1778, married Hannah 
Morgan, Feb. 6, 1806. Children : 

Hannah M., b. Dec. 9, 1806, d. 1819 ; Elvira, b. July 25, 



342 FAMILY HISTORY. 

ISOS, d. 1809 ; Elvira E., b. Jan. 1, 1810, d. 1810 ; Louisa, 
R. b. Mar. 4, 1811, m. R. R Graves, d. at Macon, Geo. Mar. 
1838 ; Lucy Ann, b. Jan. 8, 1813, m. G. M. Charnpney, Jan. 
13, 1836 ; George, b. April 14, 181.5, d. 1816 ; Henrietta, b. 
Jan. 16, 1817, m. Edwin Graves, Dec. 25, 1837, d. at Macon, 
Geo. 1848 ; Charles Bradford, b. Oct. 8, 1818, d. Feb. 1825 ; 
Mary Jane, b. Jan. 28, 1821, d. Feb. 1825 ; Horace Willard, 
b. Oct. 31, 1822, m. Harriet N. Tucker, Aug. 6, 1849 ; Sarah, 
b. Dec. 8, 1824, d. Dec. 1824. 

Bullard, Ebenezer, was born in Weston ; was one of the 
earliest settlers of the town — he was certainly here with his 
family in 1743. Like most of the first comers he located on 
Town Hill, (since called Knights,) on the farm now owned by 
Mr. Stillman Stratton ; he wa^; accompanied by his brother, 
who resided with him till his marriage. They both assisted 
in organizing the first church, in 1760. Ch. Asa, b. 1743 ; 
Simeon, b. 1745 ; Keziah, b. 1747 ; John b. 1749 ; Ephraim, 
b. 1751 ; Mary, b. 1753 ; Ebenezer, b. 1756; Sarah, b. 1758 ; 
Susannah, b. 1761 ; Asa, b. 1765. Ephraim, Susannah and 
Asa, d. 3^oung. Ebenezer and John were soldiers in the Rev- 
olutionary war. He d. 1768. 

Bullard, Joseph, brother of the above, came about the 
same time, and resided with him till, on his marriage in 1754, 
he settled on the adjoining farm. Ch. Silas, b. 1755 ; Isaac, 
b. 1757, d. 1760 ; Peter, b. 1760. Soon after this he removed 
to No. ], (now Mason,) and settled on the farm where his 
grandson now lives. Like his brother he has grand-children 
and great- grand-children residing in town. He d. about 1796. 

Bullard, Asa, (s. of Ebenezer,) grad. at Dartmouth Col- 
lege ; was principal of the Franklin school in Boston, of 
which Chief Justice Shaw was his assistant. He afterwards 
studied medicine, and was a successful practitioner. He was 
a gentleman of fine social powers and of great practical know- 
ledge. He died at Mt. Vernon, about 1826. 



THE CHAMPNEY FAMILY. 

First Generation, 

Richard Champney came from Lincolnshire, England, in 
1634 or 1()35, and settled in Cambridge, Mass. He was made 
Freeman in 1636. He was a ruling Elder in the Church 
gathered there, and much esteemed for his piety, and his ex- 
hibition of the Christian virtues. His name is honorably 
mentioned in the "Cambridge Church Gathering." He was 

married, in England, to Jane . He d. Nov. 26, 1669. 

Children : 

Esther, b. in England, 1629, m. Josiah Converse, Woburn, 
1651; Mary, b. Oct. 163-, d. young; Samuel, b. Sept. 1635, 
m. Sarah Hubbard, 1657; Sarah, b. May, 1638, m. Wm. Bar- 
rett, 1656, d. 1661 ; Mary, b. Nov. 1639, m. Jacob French, 
1665 ; John, b. May 1641 ; Daniel, b. March 1644. 
Second Generation, 

Daniel, b. 1644, (s. of Richard,) m. Dorcas Bridge, Jan. 3, 
1665. They resided in Cambridge. She d. 1684, se. 36. He 
d. 1691, se. 47. Children: 

Dorcas, b. Aug. 1667, m. Nicholas Bow, 1690 ; Daniel, b. 
Dec. 1669; Thomas, b. Sept. 1673; Noah, b. Sept. 1677; 
Downing, b. June 1680, d. 1705, se. 25; Abagail, b. April, 
1683 ; Hepzibah, b. June 1687. 

Third Generation. 

Daniel, (b. 1769, s. of Daniel,) m. Bethiah Danforth. 
Children: 

Thomas, b. 1697; Dorcas, b. 1699; Daniel, b. 1700, m. 
Tabitha Hancock, 1723; Solomon, b. 1702; Noah, b. 1704, 
m. Martha Hubbard, 1725 ; Downing, b. 1706 ; Richard, b. 
1707 : Thomas, b. 1709. 



344 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Fourth Generation. 

Solomon, (b. 1702, s. of Daniel,) m. Elizabeth Cunning- 
ham, 1723. Children : 

Richard, b. 172- ; Ebenezer, b. 1729, (probably died young); 
Nathan, b. 1733 ; John, b. 1735, d. 1820, se. 85, 2d wife Aba- 
gail Crackbone ; Silence, b. 1740, d. 1747; Ebenezer, b. April 
3, 1744. 

The above Solomon was bred a mechanic, but afterwards 
became a soldier under Geo. III. and was stationed at Castle 
William, Boston Harbor, where he d. in 1760. 

Fifth Generation. 

Ebenezer, (s. of Solomon,) b. 1744, m. Abigail Trow- 
bridge, at Groton, 1764. Children : 

Benjamin, b. Aug. 20th, 1764, d. 1827, se. 62 ; Francis, b. 
Jan. 27, 1766; Abigail, b. May 4, 1767, m. Thos. Gardner, d. 
1805 ; Hannah, b. Sept. 23, 1768, m. James Prescott ; Eliza- 
beth, b. Sept. 12, 1770, d. Aug. 27, 1775 ; Sarah, b. Dec. 25, 
1771, d. Aug. 20, 1775 ; Ebenezer, b. Feb. 5, 1774, d. Aug. 
29, 1775. 

She d. 1775, ee. 35. 2d wife Abigail Parker, Nov. 1778, 
d. 1790, ge. 38. Children : 

Elizabeth, b. Feb. 6, 1779, m. John Preston, M. D.; Eben- 
ezer, b. July 19, 1781, d. 1820, se 45 ; Jonas Cutler, b. April 
17, 1783, d. 1824, se. 41. 

Married third wife, Susan Wyman, 1796. She d. same 

year. 

8ixth Generation. 

Hannah, (dau. of Ebenezer,) m. James Prescott, 1792. 
Children : 

Susan, b. 1793, d. 1795 ; Hannah, b. 1795, d. 1800 ; Susan, 
b. 1797 ; LucRETiA ; Lucy ; James, b. 1803, d. 1803 ; William ; 
Mary ; Hannah Maria ; Benjamin. 

Ebenezer, (s. of Ebenezer,) m. Mehitable Goodridge. 
Children: 

Jonas ; Nichols ; Ebenezer ; Julius ; Samuel ; Elizabeth ; 
Lewis. 

Jonas Cutler, (s. of Ebenezer,) m. Phebe Parker, 1808. 
Children : 



CHAMPNEY FAMILY. 345 

Horatio Nelson, b. 1809; Abby Parker, b. 1813. 
Elizabeth, (dan. of Ebenezer,) m. John Preston. Children: 
Ebenezer ; Maria; John; Eliza; Llxy; Abigail; Maria; 
William ; Thomas ; Rebecca. 

Benjamin, (s. of Ebenezer,) m. Mercy Parker, 1791. Chil- 
dren: 

Sarah, b. July 22, 1792; Maria, b. July 23, 1y93, d. Nov. 
1. 1796; Benjamin, b. March 12, 1795, d. Nov. 13, 1813, an 
undergraduate of Dartmouth College. 

She d. 1795, se. 29 ; m. second wife, Rebecca Brooks, 1809. 
Children : 

Edward Walter, b. Aug. 18, 1810, m. Caroline L. Floyd, 
1845 ; George Mather, March 6, 1812, m. Lucy Ann Brown, 
1836 ; Maria Louisa, b. Nov. 14, 1813, m. F. R. Cragin, 1837; 
Ellen Eliza, b. Oct. 17, 1815, m. John Clough, 1840 ; Ben- 
jamin Crackbone, b. Nov. 22, 1817; Mary Jane, b. Nov. 22, 
1819, d. March 2, 1837; Henry Trowbridge, b. Sept, 19, 
1825, m. Lydia S. Parshley, 1849. 

Francis, (s. of Ebenezer,) m. Abigail Trowbridge, 1786. 
Children : 

Francis, b. 1788, 1791 ; Samuel, b. 1789, d. 1793 ; Abigail, 
b. 1791, d. 1793; Fanny, b. 1793; Francis 2d, b. 1794; Ab- 
igail 2d, b. 1796 ; Samuel 2d, b. 1798 ; Ferdinand, b. 1800. 

Abigail, (dau. of Ebenezer,) m. Thos. Gardner, Groton, 
2790. Children : 

Thomas Champney, b. 1791, d. ; Abigail, b. 1792; 

Eliza, b. 1794; John, b. 1796 ; Walter; George; Mary. 

b fi/ynylTyillt/^yy^ was born at Cambridge, educated 
^ A^^^^f-'^ g^j Harvard University, receiving the de- 
(_^/ gree of Bachelor of Arts in 1762. He 

was at first designed for the ministry, and to that end studied 
Divinity and preached about two years. He received a call 
to settle in township No. 1, now Mason ; this was declined, 
and soon after, he left this profession for that of the Law. 
He prepared himself for this vocation in the office of Hon. 
Samuel Livermore, and was admitted to the Bar at Ports- 
44 



346 FAMILY HISTORY. 

mouth, N. H., in 1768. In June of the same year he re- 
moved to New Ipswich and entered upon the duties of his 
profession. In the spring of 1783, Mr. Champney went to 
Groton, where he remained until 1789, \vas representative in 
1784, when lie returned to New Ipswich, His first commis- 
sion as Justice of the Peace was received from the celebrated 
Gov. John Hancock, of Massachusetts. 

In 1795 he was appointed Judge of Probate for the County 
of Hillsboro'. The duties of this office were appropriately 
discharged until his resignation a few months before his death. 

Judge Champney married, first, a daughter of Rev. Caleb 
Trowbridge, of Groton, in 1764, which connected him with 
the distinguished families of Cottons and Mathers. By this 
marriage he had seven children, three of whom died in in- 
fancy. He became a widower in 1775, and was married 
again in 1778, to Abigail Parker, by whom he had four child- 
ren. She died in 1790, and he was again married in March, 
1796, to Susan Wyman, who died the September following. 

Judge Champney was a man of very respectable talents, 
and exercised no inconsiderable influence in this vicinity. 
During the earlier years of his practice, he was the only law- 
yer between Keene and Groton, and had offices both at New 
Ipswich and the latter place, in conjunction with his son. 
The labor of attending the courts at that period was very great, 
the circuit being extensive, and all journeys were necessarily 
performed on horseback. 

Diu'ing the controversy between the colonies and the mother 
country, the sentiments of Mr. Champney were adverse to 
those extreme measures that led to the revolution. He was a 
moderate tory, and deprecating a resort to arms, believed that 
with prudent and moderate counsels all causes of disaflection 
might be satisfactorily adjusted. He wished to preserve his 
loyalty and the peace of the country ; but like many others 
who forebore to take part in the contest, he lived to acknowl- 
edge the benificent effects of that struggle which gave us our 
liberties and free institutions. 

He died on the 10th September, 1810, at the age of 67. 




^. ^. 



'/^^Z^ 




CHAMPNEY FAMILY. 347 

Benjamin Champney, eldest son of the above, was born at 
Groton, Aug. 20, 1764. His early life was spent in the usual 
employments attendant upon farming. His education was 
received from the common schools of that day, although he 
enjoyed the advantages of occasional instruction in the office 
of his father. Before he completed his majority he com- 
menced in the same office, the study of ihe Law, and in due 
time prepared himself for the legal profession. He opened an 
office in Groton, in conjunction with his father in 1786, and 
resided there until 1792, when he returned to New Ipswich. 
From this period, until the time of his own decease in 1827, 
he continued alone in the duties of his avocation. 

Few men have enjoyed the confidence of the community in 
which they lived, to a greater degree than Mr. Champney. 
Possessed of a candid and liberal mind, he saw things in their 
true and just relations, and was capable of weighing in his 
well-balanced judgment the various and complicated issues 
that were offered for his advice and adjudication. For many 
years he served the town as one of the Selectmen. He re- 
ceived the appointment of Post Master upon the removal of 
the office to the Village, which he held for 20 years. He was 
also for a number of years, President of the Hillsboro' Bar. 
As a townsman, he was one of the foremost in devising and 
executing measures for the promotion of learning and the 
general improvement of the town. 

He was one of the projectors and original proprietors of the 
first Cotton Factory built in New Ipswich. This enterprise 
was commenced in 1804, in conjunction with Charles Barrett 
and Charles Robbins. [This factory, together with those that 
have grown out of it, has been of much importance, to the 
trade and prosperity of the town. For a time it was a great 
attraction to the neighborhood and even to places quite re- 
mote on account of its entire novelty. For some years it was 
conducted with much success, but subsequently it proved a 
source of loss to all concerned.] 

Mr. C. married, in 1792, Mercy Parker. She died in 1795, 
having borne him three children. Benjamin, the only son, 
was endowed with rare mental qualities, and at a very early 
period of life was prepared for college. He entered the 



348 FAMILY HISTORY. 

institution at Hanover in 1812. During the first year he was 
accidentally wounded in the head hy a sfone thrown by a fel- 
low-student. The blow occasioned fits of an epileptic character, 
which compelled him to leave the college. After sutfering 
increased physical and mental prostration for more than a 
year he was found dead in his bed. on the morning of Nov. 
13, 1813. 

The second marriage of Mr. C, took place in Oct. 1809, to 
Rebecca Brooks, of New Ipswich, a relation of the late Gov. 
John Brooks of Mass. By this union he had seven children 
all but one of whom are now living. 

Esquire Ohampney died on the 12th of May, 1827, at the 
age of 63. Although at one time possessed of a competence 
of this world's goods, yet the decline of his life was somewhat 
embittered by the evils of an accumulating poverty. He had 
not enjoyed the advantages of a collegiate education, yet he 
was well read in his profession and had a good knowledge of 
English literature. As a gentleman, he was courteous and 
affable; and as a man, public-spirited and honorable. 



Chandler, James, came here about 1765. He was descend- 
ed from Roger, who came from England and settled at Con- 
cord in 165S, who m. Mary Symonds in 1671, d. 1717; his 
wf d. 1728. They had several children of whom Samuel m. 
Dorcas Buss, 1695, d. 1745. Ch. Joseph, Samuel, John, 
James, and three daus. James had sons Joseph (who lived and 
d. in Concord, and whose posterity still reside on the land 
their ancestors owned almost two centuries since) and James, 
who came to this town, m. Mary Melville. Ch. Samuel, b. 
1769, d. in Con. 1799 ; James, b. 1768, m. Huldah Paine, d. 
in Penn. leaving 6 ch. Roger, b. 1770, m. Lydia Marshall 
of Chelmsford, in 1795, d. 1847. Ch. Mary, m. Thos. Kins- 
worthy ; Rebecca, m. Stillman Gibson, resides in town, have 
had nine ch.; Sally, m. Ephraim Fairbanks, ch. five s. atid 
two daus : John, m. Betsy Richardson ; Lydl^, m. Benjamin 
Safford, now resides in Illinois; Daniel, m. Azenith Wheeler, 
removed to Penn. 

Deacon Chandler was a man of most amiable character, 
and universally respected, an exemplary christian and useful 



CHICKERING FAMILY. 349 

citizen ; his descendants are among the most prominent men 
in town. He d. May, 1822. 

Chandler, John, came here from Westford, in 1750 , had a 
grant of money and land, inckiding the falls in the Sonhegan 
near the high bridge, which encouraged him to build the first 
mills there. It is supposed the grist mill stood above the bridge, 
the dam occupying nearly the same site as the one afterwards 
built by Mr. Sanderson, while the saw mill probably stood near 
where the Columbian factory now is. Although Mr. Chandler 
seems to have had as good advantages as any man in town, 
he did not choose to remain, but about 1769 sold out his 
mills and other property, and removed to Maine. His ch. b. 
here were John, b. 1754; Noah, b. 1756; Joel, b. 1757; 
Lydl\, b. 1759 ; Keziah, b. 1761 ; Molly, b. 1763 ; Lucy, b. 
1765; Susannah, b. 1766; Hannah, b. 1768. 



Chickering, Abner, was b. at Holden, Mass., 1767. He 
resided at Mason Village for several years, and about the 
commencement of the present century removed to this town. 
He purchased the farm known as the Knowlton place, in the 
easterly part of the town, where he resided till his death. He 
was a blacksmith, an excellent farmer, an amiable and indus- 
trious man and a useful citizen. He died in 1841, ge. 74. Ch. 
Mary, Samuel, Jonas, Melinda, Eliza, Rebecca, Charles. 

Chickering, Jonas, (s. of Abner,) received the rudiments of 
a good education at our town schools, and at the age of 17, 
went to learn the cabinet-maker's trade of Mr. John Gould, 
whom he served with fidelity for three years, when he was 
released from further service with the consent of his employer. 
Mr. C. early evinced a natural taste for music, and availed 
himself of every opportunity of acquiring instruction, and 
many of his leisure hours were devoted to the study of its 
rules and to its practice on various instruments. When about 
nineteen years of age, a piano forte, (the only one in town,) 
became useless for want of some person to tune it and make 
some slight repairs ; and, although it was the first instrument 
of the kind he had ever seen, yet, prompted by curiosity and 
his interest in musical instruments, he undertook the task. 



350 FAMILY HISTORY. 

and, after much labor, succeeded in restoring it to usefulness. 

This apparently trifling matter, no doubt, had an important 
bearing on after life, and he soon after, unaided and alone, 
commenced the building of a small organ without any instruc- 
tion, drawings, or hardly any idea what such an instrument 
should be. He persevered for a while, but could hardly be 
said 10 have succeeded, and it is only now referred to, to show 
the early bent of his mind. 

After leaving town, he soon found his way to Boston, which 
city he entered on the 15 th of February, 1818, and, with the 
industry so characteristic of him, found employment and 
commenced work that day, where he labored for one year. 
In the meantime he had ascertained that the manufacture of 
pianos was pursued as a business ; and on the anniversary of 
his advent into the city, he entered into the employ of Mr. 
Osborn, then almost the only manufacturer of these instru- 
ments. Here he found much to satisfy his inquiring mind, 
and for four years he was in this establishment, until he had 
made himself master of all the knowledge then to be obtained, 
and on the loth of February, 1823, entered into a copartner- 
ship with Mr. Stewart, which lasted three years, when Mr. 
C. continued the business alone. At this period he had 
acquired some reputation, as he had introduced many 
improvements, and his work began to show indications of 
what has since been attained in this department. On the 
12th* anniversary of his entrance into the city, he became 
associated with Mr. Mackay, a thorough business man and 
capitalist, with whom he continued ten years. This gave an 
opportunity for a rapid extension of the business, by the erec- 
tion of large buildings, the importation and selection of the 
most beautiful kinds of wood, and for the last twenty years 
he has gone on, each year surpassing its predecessor, by pro- 
ducing an article more splendid in exterior as weU as superior 
in tone and finish, until " Chickering's Pianos " stand without 
a rival in the world. To show the great increase in his 
business, it is only necessary to state, that when he com- 

* The fifteenth of February, which, by a singular coincidence, seems to have 
been the day of destiny on which all the great enterprizes of his life have been 
uadertaken. 



CHICKERING FAIMILY. 351 

menced, he manufactured only fifteen instruments a year, at 
this time he is making thirteen hundred a year, and the 
demand for them is greater than can be supphed. 

Within the last year he visited Europe, where a triumph 
awaited him of no ordinary kind. Two of his instruments 
were exhibited at the " World's Fair," (where was collected 
the choicest workmanship of England, France and Italy,) for 
which he had the honor of receiving a " Prize Medal," which 
conferred distinction on himself as well as on his country. 

With all this prosperity and success, he is always to be 
found at work, and still remains the same affable, unassum- 
ing, kind man as when he left our town, to which he is still 
much attached, as his recent subscription of one thousand 
dollars to the Academy will testify. In the city of his adop- 
tion he has a large circle of friends and is universally respect- 
ed ; and among the professors and lovers of music he is 
looked to as their principal adviser and patron. Mr. C. has 
been a member of the Legislature, was several years Presi- 
dent of the " Massachusetts Mechanic Association," and for 
many years President of the " Handel and Haydn " Musical 
Society. 

Campbell, Robert, a native of Scotland, was here in 1760. 
He resided on the farm on the Ashby road, now owned by Mr. 
Jesse Stearns ; his son, Caleb, who m. Abigail Wilkins, resi- 
ded on the same place. He d. 1800, se. 59. Ch. Caleb, now 
residing in town, and a dan. who m. Samuel Cragin. 



Clary, or McClary, William, came here from Lunenburg 
with his brother Daniel, about 1751. They were originally 
from the North of Ireland. He, as well as his brother, had all 
the propensities for fim and jokes that are so characteristic of 
their countrymen. They did much to amuse the town, and 
no doubt were useful in other ways. William removed to 
Belfast, Maine, soon after the Revolution, and he, with three 
of his sons, marched for Concord at the time of " the«fight." 

Clary, Daniel, was located near the Samuel Wheeler 
place. At the raising of Dea. E. Adams' barn in 1780, he 



CRAGIN FAMILY, 353 

town affairs, particularly in the schools. He is still remem- 
bered by some of the older inhabitants. 

His ch. born here were Noah, b. 1786, d. at Keene 1791* ; 
Polly, b. 1788 ; Josiah Parsons, b. 1787, who was prepared 
for college at Chesterfield, grad. at Dartmouth College, 1807. 
He pursued a course of professional studies in his father's 
office at Keene ; removed to Boston, where he was admitted 
to the Bar in 1810, and during the same month opened his 
office and commenced practice. Mr. C. has continued, for a 
long course of years, to devote himself exclusively to his pro- 
fession, and is among those who have '' not been slothful in 
business," and consequently has been favored, from an early 
period in his professional career, with more than an ordinary 
share of lucrative and highly respectable practice. 



Clark, John. Though not one of the early settlers, he has 
been for a long time, with his family, among the most promi- 
nent townsmen. He was a native of Lyndeboro', and came 
here in 1816, as an overseer in the Davis factory. Soon after, 
he engaged in trade with N. D. Gould, and afterwards with 
Timothy Fox, 3d. He was then superintendent in Brown's 
factory ; and of late years has acted in various capacities in 
the centre village. He was chosen deacon of the church in 
1819, and for many years had charge of the choir, and occa- 
sionally taught singing schools. His children, especially the 
youngest, have distinguished themselves as musicians. He 
has been several years Town Clerk. He m. Margaret Rand 
of Lyndeboro' ; she d. 1846, se. 64. Their children were, 1. 
Mary, m. Martin Ames, d. 1841, se. 34 ; 2. Hannah, m. W. W. 
Johnson, d. 1843, ge. 33 ; 3. John P. ; 4. Deborah, rn. Henry 
Adams: 5. Peter. 



The Cragin family in this country, is declared to have been 
descended from John Cragon, a Scotchman, who was taken by 

* It was then the custom to call on some friend, to remain as a watcher to the 
corpse, and Mr. Joseph Appleton of this town, a most promising young man, 
who had just graduated at Dartmouth College, and was then student at law, un- 
dertook the melancholy office, and as it was supposed, from this exposure, took 
the same fever and died, after an illness of only one week. 

45 



354 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar, and shipped to this country 
with other prisoners in 1G51, to avoid the care of them, and 
whose services were sold, after their arrival here, for three or 
four years, to defray the cost of transportation.* The scurvy 
broke out on board during ti.e voyage, and Cragon being sup- 
posed at the point of death, was about to be thrown over- 
board, but was spared at the intercession of a young woman, 
by whose assiduous attentions he was restored, and whom he 
aft.^rwards married, and settled in Woburn. 

Francis and Benjamin Cragin, were among the early settlers 
of Temple, and located near each other at the foot of the 
mountains between Temple and Sharon. They were highly 
respectable townsmen, and both held the office of Justice of 
the Peace, and Benjamin was Lieutenant in Capt. Parker's 
company at the battle of Bennington. About the year 1800 
Francis exchanged farms with Q,uincy Adams, and removed 
to the farm of the elder Deacon Ephraim Adams, where he 
resided until his third marriage, with the widow of Charles 
Barrett, and removed to the Barrett mansion, leaving his farm 
to his son Joseph. He d. 1826, ee. 87. 

He m. 1st, Miss Piper, by whom he had Paul, who settled 
in Greenfield, N. H., where he still lives at an advanced age; 
2d Sibbel Law, who d. 1809, ac. 60; they had, besides several 
children that d. young, Francis, lives in Temple ; Stephen, 
m. Patty Kimball of N. I., lived first in Temple and then in 
Hancock; Esther, married Artemas Wheeler, who kept store 
in Temple, after w-vrds removed to New York State, and thence 
to Groton, Mass., where they recently died. 

Cragin, Silas, the third son, m. Anna, dan. of Amos Prich- 
avd, lived at first in New Ipswich, then in Billerica, after- 
wards in Harvard, and the last twenty years of his life in New 
Ipswich. He was a saddler by trade. He d. 1849, se. 74. 
She d. 1838, ae. 62. Their children were: 

1 — Lorenzo S., merchant in Boston, \vho m. Susan Tyler, 
and has iwo sons, one of them a graduate of Harvard Col- 
lege, 1849, and now a lawyer in Boston ; 2 — Anna, who m. 

* See Genealogical Register for 1847, p. 378. 



CUMMINGS FAMILY. 355 

Stedman Houghton, of Harvard, and soon settled in New Ips- 
wich ; shed. 1843, se. 35, 3 — Sophronia ; 4 — Elvira; 5 — 
Elizabeth, d. 1850 : 6 — Rebecca, m. George W. My rick of 
Brookfield, 1848. 

Joseph m. Hannah Patten, of Temple, and removed to 
New Ipswich with his father. They had several children, 

who have settled in the town and vicinity. She d. , and 

he afterwards married a second time. 

Leonard, was a saddler, and lived some time in New Ips- 
wich in a honse near his brother Joseph, and removed to 
Westmoreland. 

Isaiah, was a shoe-maker, m. Miss HiMreth, and removed 
to Alstead, but returned again, and resided many years; he 
m. 2d, Sivona, dau. of Joseph Davis, and now lives at Gro- 
ton, highly respected, and a deacon of the church. 

Samuel, m. Polly, dau. of Caleb Campbell, and trades in 
Alstead. 



Crosby, Jonah, was here before 1756, came from Westford, 
as also Robert, Joel and Josiah ; it is said they were all broth- 
ers, and some of them were here soon after 1750; their names 
are on the tax list for 1763, but removed to Maine previous to 
the Revolution. Joel Crosby was taken prisoner by the In- 
dians, near Fort Edward, in 1756 ; his father-in-law, Andrew 
Spaulding of Westford, petitioned the General Court of Mass. 
to ransom him in 1757. He was probably afterwards a resi- 
dent here, and settled on Spaulding's land. The wife of one 
of the above died before 1755, and was buried in the ancient 
burying ground on the Judge Farrar farm. Jonah Crosby m. 
Lydia Chandler at Townsend, in 1757. 



CuMMiNGs, Eleazer, (s. of Elcazcv, grandson of Nathaniel,) 
b. at Dunstable, Dec. 15, 1740. He came here about 1762, 
and settled on the John Knowkon farm; in 1768 he pur- 
chased the extensive farm and the mills erected by John Chan- 
dler, which he afterwards increased by other purchases, till it 
embraced about four hundred acres, covering the whole Sou- 



356 FAMILY HISTORY. 

began Village and vicinity. He soon after erected a new set 
of mills near the same spot, to which he afterwards added a 
Malt house, and soon after an Oil Mill. He was an enter- 
prizing citizen. He commanded the reinforcement that went 
to Cambridge on the alarm given at the battle of Bunker 
Hill. He d. Aug. 4, 181.5, se. 16. Ch. Molly, b. 1764, m. 
James Barr, a Scotchman by birth, of whom mention has 
already been made, as associated in the malting and other 
processes with Mr. Cummings — he was a highly respectable 
citizen, the father of Dr. James Barr and a large family, who 
are still extensively connected in town ; Aaron, b. 1765, d. 
1766 ; Matilda, m. T. Wheelock ; Charles, b. 1770, d. 1809; 
DiEDAMiA, m. Wm. Prichard ; Lavina, b. 1774, m. L. Joslin ; 
Barnard, d. young. 

Cutter, John, (s. of John,) b. at Lexington 1726, resided 
several years at Shrewsbury, came here about 1767, settled on 
the place lately occupied by John Wilson ; he d. 1771, se. 45. 
He m. Susannah Hastings 1749. Ch. John, b. 1750 ; Joseph, 
b. 1752; Moses, b. 1754; Benjamin, b. 1756; Susannah, b. 
1759, m. Supply Wilson ; Moses, b. 1761 ; David, b. 1762; 
Rachel, b. 1764; Sally, b. 1766; Rachel, 2d., b. 1769; 
Benoni, b. 1771, was a physician at Hollis. Mrs. C. m. 
Simeon Gould; she d. in 1827, se. 96. 

Cutter, Nathan, (brother of the above,) b. 1733. Settled 
on the adjacent farm ; afterwards removed to the place known 
as " Cutter's Lane," where he d. in 1808, se. 88. Had ch. b. 
here: Hannah, b. 1761 ; Rachel, b. 1763; Barnabas, b. 1766; 
Isaac, b. 1768 ; Rhoda, b. 1770. 

Cutter, John, (s. of John,) resided on the farm, and erect- 
ed the house in Bakehouse village, afterwards occupied by 
Robert Nicholas. He d. 1813, of the spotted fever, se. 63. 



The Davis family have been, and are still quite numerous 
here. They came from Concord, and are the descendants of 
Dolor Davis, who came from England as early as 1634, was 
first at Cambridge, but afterwards settled at Concord. 



DAVIS FAMILY. 357 

Davis Josiah, (s. of Thomas,) was b. at Concord. He set- 
tled on the place now owned by Mr. Robbins, in the south 
part of the town, about 1770. He and his son Josiah joined 
the church in the great revival in 1786. He m. Abigail Hub- 
bard, and had a large and highly respectable family, of which 
only Lucinda, who m. Jesse Stearns, resides in town. 

Davis, Jonathan, came here in 1764, and settled in the east 
part of the town. In September, 1775, Mr. D. was appointed 
Ensign of the South company ; his commission is still extant, 
signed by Matthew Thornton; President of the Province. Mr 
D. was engaged in the revolutionary war for a short period 
By his wife, Sarah, he had ch. Sarah, b. 1767; Mary, b 
1769; Lucy, b. 1770; Jonathan, b. 1771; Jonah, b. 1773 
Ruth, b. 1784, (m. Stephen Poor, 1746); Solomon, b. 1776 
Thomas, b. 1781 ; Rebecca, b. 1784. Mr. Davis d. 1819, se. 77 

Davis. Solomon, (son of Jonathan,) inherited the paternal 
farm ; was long an officer in the militia, and commanded the 
South company. By his first wife, Mary, he had two child- 
ren, who d. young. She d. 1809, se. 32. He m. 2d, Esther 
Allen, who d. 1840, leaving no children. He afterwards m. 
Candace Tarbell, who bore him three children. Capt. Davis 
d. in 1850, in the house where he was born, se. 74. 

Davis, Stephen, was here in 1768. By his wife Sarah, he 
had Stephen, b. 1775, (m. in 1796 Hepzibah Brown); Amos, 
b. 1774; Aaron, b. 1776; Moses, b. 1778; Timothy, b. 1781. 

Davis, Silas, came here in 1768, and settled on the Flat 
Mountain. The country west of him, for many miles, was 
then almost an unbroken forest, and well stocked with wild 
animals. Mr. D. was a great hunter, and was said to have 
killed more wolves previous to 1800 than all the other men 
in town. In the next twenty years he was as successful in 
destroying foxes and other game. His sons, (Joseph, who 
carried on the baking business with energy and. success for 
many years,) Benjamin, James and Thomas, still reside in town. 

Davis, Thomas, was taxed here in 1773, and Elijah and 
Abraham were here in 1778. 



THE FARRAR FAMILY. 

Conspicuous among the early, though not among the first 
settlers of this town, were four members of this family. 
They were children of Dea. Samuel Farrar*, of that part 
of Concord, Mass., which is now Lincoln. He was born 
Sept. 28, 1708, the youngest son of George'', who first settled 
in that place in 1692, and great-grand-son of Jacob*, who was 
one of the original proprietors of Lancaster, Mass., in 1653.(*) 
Though he lived and died on his father's farm in Lincoln, 
where his descendants still live, yet as he was long a freeholder 
and taxpayer in this town, settled so many of his children 
here, and thereby promoted the settlement here of so many of 
his townsmen and neighbors, we claim a right to appropriate 
a portion of his character and history. Q') He married, Jan. 
13, 1731-2, Lydia, daughter of Capt. Benjamin Barrett, and 
grand-daughter of James Minot, Esq., " who was one of the 
most distinguished men of his day in Concord." She was 
born Aug. 2, 1712, and died in June, 1802, in her 90th year. 
He was much interested in public afl'airs, frequently serving 
his town as Selectman, Town Clerk, Representative, &c., and 
was a patriot of great zeal, steadiness and perseverance. He 
was Selectman of Concord in 1754, when Luicoln was set off", 
and afterwards for many years Town Clerk and Representa- 
tive of the new town. 

In Nov. 1773, he was Chairman of the first Committee of 
Correspondence, and afterwards a member of the great Mid- 
dlesex Convention of Aug. 30, 1774, which led off" in the 
Revolution, by Rrsnlving, among other things of similar 
import, " That it is our opinion these late acts [of the British 

» See a Genealogical account of the family in the 6th Vol. N. E. Hist, and Ge- 
nealogical Register, page 313, for A. D. 1852. 

''See Shattuck's History of Concord. 



FARRAR FAMILY 359 

Parliament,] if quietly submitted to, will annihilate the last 
vestige of" liberty in this Province, and therefore we must be 
justified, by God and the world, in never submitting to themy 
He was also a member of the first Provincial Congress, which 
met Oct. 11, 1774, and at the age of 66 years, took part in 
the first battle of the Revolntion, at Concord, Apr. 19, 1775. 
He died soon afler the conclusion of the war, Apr. 17, 1783, 
in the 75th year of his age, having witnessed the establish- 
ment of the independence of his country, and endured the 
hardships of its acquisition, but leaving to his posterity the 
enjoyment of the rich inheritance of its blessings. 




V^/V Cy/Ci^^^^^^^ ' ^^^^ ^^^ second son 
^~T^ Pand third child of Dea. 

Samuel*, born September 8, 1738, and graduated at Harvard 
College in 1755, with a class which has been considered re- 
markable for the number of its distinguished characters. He 
commenced preaching here in the winter of 1758-9, before he 
was twenty-one years of age ; was called to settle in Novem- 
ber 1759, collected and organized a church, and was ordained 
its first pastor, October 22, 1760. He continued its pastor, 
and the only minister of the gospel in the place, to the time of 
his death. 

His connections by marriage, as well as birth, were highly 
respectable. Eunice, his wife, (daughter of the late Isaac 
Brown of Waltham, sister of Moses Brown of Beverly, and 
of Mary, wife of Ephraim Hartwell, Esq.,) whom he married 
in 1764, survived him about 9 years, and died Sept. 9, 1818, 
aged 74. Their children were 

1.— Stephen,^ b. Aug. 17, 1766. 2.— Eunice, b. Feb. 26, 
1768. 3. — .Tames, b. Jnne 23, 1769. 4. — Isaac Brown, b. 
March 27, 1771. 5. — Samuel, b. June 20, 1772, grad. Harv. 
1793. 6.— Prentice, b. Nov. 12, 1773. 7.— Mary, b. June 
26, 1775. 8.— Moses, b. March 12, 1777. 9.— Lydia, b. Dec. 
30, 1778. 10.— Caleb, b. June, 1780. 11.— Nancy, b. Jan. 
24, 1782. 12.— Ephraim Hartwell, b. Dec. 8, 1783. 

They all survived him, married, and brought up families of 
their own. Several of them spent portions of their married 



360 FAMILY HISTORY. 

life here, but Ephraim Hartwell was the only one that spent 
the whole. In 1826 he married Phebe Parker, at that time 
the widow of Jonas C. Champney, and remained an inhabi- 
tant here, occupying the farm and last residence of his father, 
till he died Jan. 8, 18.51. He served his generation as an 
instructor of youth,'' Town Clerk, and in other civil and 
ecclesiastical relations, respected and beloved as a good citi- 
zen, and a most kind and amiable man. It is said that at this 
time, (1852) none of the numerous descendants of the first 
minister remain in the town. His ministry, extending through 
half a century, was useful, peaceful and happy. His natural 
talents were above the ordinary standard.*^ He had a clear 
discernment, sound judgment, and a good knowledge of hu- 
man character. Decision and firmness were among his most 
striking characteristics, yet prudence and moderation held a 
distinguished place among the large assemblage of his virtues. 
He was distinguished for his early and constant piety, and 
the unceasing devotion of his whole soul to the solemn duties 
of his charge. As a Theologian he was a Calvinist — as a 
preacher evangelical and pathetic. As a man, his manners 
of eminent gravity and dignity, were tempered to urbanity by 
christian benevolence. In his private deportment, as well as 
in his public ministrations, he never failed to manifest a deep 
sense of the majesty and holiness of God, and the value of 
the gospel ; scarce anything can be conceived more solemn 
than his devotional addresses. One who knew him well, has 
said of him, '' I have known no man, the recollection of 
whose moral, intellectual, and personal qualities, rests with so 
much power on my mind, as forming a character so truly 
venerable and becoming a father and apostle in the church." 
Sanctity of manners, devotion to God, and benevolence to 
man, were the great leading traits of his character. The 
extent of his influence in promoting the settlement of this 
town may be inferred not only from its rapid progress after he 
came, but from the number of his personal connections, and 

»For several years in Boston. See p. 320. 

bPanoplist, 1811. N. H. Hist. Collections.— Boston Patriot, 1809. Funeral 
Sermon, by Dr. Payson, 1809. 



FARRAR FAMILY. 361 

former townsmen, who followed him here. His influence on 
the general character and respectability of the town, may he 
inferred, perhaps with less certainty, from the number of dis- 
tinguished men it contained, the progress of education and 
improvement, and the moral and conservative principles and 
conduct of the people during the fifty years of his connection 
with them. 

He preached to his own people on his last Sabbath, and his 
life and ministerial labor were suddenly terminated together, 
by apoplexy, on the 23d day of June, 1S09. The Rev. Dr. 
Payson, of Rindge, preached his funeral sermon, which was 
published, from the text, " Devout men carried Stephen to his 
burial, and made great lamentation over him." The town 
took charge of his funeral, and placed over his grave a plain 
marble slab, which, besides the usual memorials, contains the 
following inscription, which has been admired for its touching 
simplicity. 

THE PEOPLE OF HIS CHARGE 

LEAVE THIS STONE 

TO MARK THE PLACE 

WHERE THEY HAVE LAID HIM. 

About two years after his decease,^ the Rev. Dr. Payson, 
who, on entering the ministry, had received the charge from 
him, was called upon to deliver the charge at the ordination 
of Mr. Farrar's successor. After an appropriate introduction, 
he proceeded to transmit the same charge which had been 
delivered to him. The circumstance had a powerful effect on 
the mind of the speaker, and the manner in which it was used 
made it no less powerful on the hearers. Standing in his 
place, and speaking his words, he seemed to exhibit their ven- 
erated pastor from the grave, instructing his youthful succes- 
sor how to break the bread of life to his people. 

The only publications from the press, to which he is known 
to have given his name, are a sermon preached at the inter- 
ment of the Rev. Mr. Dix of Townsend, and several charges 
delivered at the ordinations of his brethren in the ministry. 

James,* the third son and fourth child of Dea. Samuel, was 
born July 24, 1741. He came to this town after his brother's 

• N. H. Historical Collections, 

46 



362 FAMILY HISTORY. 

ordination, and after coming of age in 1762, and settled as a 
farmer, on the place where his yonnger brother afterwards 
lived. His deed is dated October 15th, 1762. He cleared a 
portion of this farm, and commenced the present buildings 
upon it, A view of the house is presented on the next page. 
It is not known to whose right the lot No. ], in the 8th range, 
on which the buildings stand, fell, in the division among the 
Proprietors of the Massachusetts Grant, or whether any 
dwelling-house was erected upon it. But it is known that 
some improvements were made, and that the first meeting- 
house and burying-ground were located on either side of the 
road, on the top of the hill, eastwardly of the dwelling-house, 
and in the neighborhood of the solitary hemlock, which 
remains the only survivor of the ancient forest that covered 
the hill. That meeting-house was burnt some years before 
the New Hampshire grant was made, but it has not been 
ascertained precisely when it was built. The building of it 
was required, as a condition in the Massachusetts Grant, 
which became utterly void, by the running of the New Hamp- 
shire line in 1741. It is not probable, therefore, that the 
grantees would be at any expense to perform the condition 
after that time. James died July 11, 1767, in his 26th year, 
and unmarried. It is inscribed on his grave-stone that 

" He was a pious youth." 

The inhabitants had manifested their confidence in him, by 
electing him to many responsible ofiices in the town, and at 
time of his premature death he was surveyor of highways, 
and a member of the committee for building the third meeting- 
house, which was completed in 1769. 

Rebecca,* the fifth child of Dea. Samuel, was born Aug. 
13, 1743, and married Doctor John Preston of this town, Nov. 
29, 1764. She outlived her husband, and died April 1, 1829, 
in her 86th year. Her history, with that of her husband and 
numerous family, belongs, more appropriately, to the head of 
their family name, to which the reader is referred. 



FARRAR FAMILY. 



36: 




t/^ <X7^(Xn^ ,* the fourth and youngest son, and 
seventh child of Dea. Samuel, was born June 2S, 1747, old 
style/ He passed the years of his childhood and youth on 
his father's farm and at the schools in Concord, till the year 
1763, when he entered Harvard College, where he was grad- 
uated in 1787. The two following years he passed in teach- 
ing schools in Concord and Lincoln, which had now become 
a separate town, and Framingham. The Hon. John Locke, 
late member of Congress from Middlesex, now of Boston, 
says he went to school to him in Framingham in 1769. In 
the same capacity of school teacher, he came to this tov/n in 
1770, and his name first appears on the tax list in October of 
that year. The next spring the town voted to employ an Eng- 
lish schoolmaster for nine months of the year, and to raise 
money to build school-houses in the several districts. When 
this was done, the practice was to dispense with a central 
Grammar school, and employ him to teach in all the districts 
in succession, allowing all the Grammar scholars to follow 
him into them. In this manner the Enslish scholars com- 



» See Shattuck's Hist. Concord ; Mr. Clary's Centennial Discourse, 1847 ; 
Rev. Mr. Lee's Funeral Sermon ; Gen. Reg. 1850. 



364 FAMILY HISTORY. 

pleted their education, and those intended for college pursued 
their preparatory studies. In 1771 he became a freeholder, 
and in 1773 the owner of the entire farm on which he lived, 
including part of No. 1 in the 7th range, the whole of No. 1 
in the 8th range, and part of No. 1 in the 9th range, or the 
Jo. Kidder lot, as it was called. 

The farm and the schools divided his attention, till the 
change of government at the Revolution threw him into wider 
and more public responsibilities, to the exclusion of the latter. 
He never received an appointment of any sort from the King's 
government, nor is it known that he ever came directly in 
contact with it, till, in 1773, he Avas appointed by the town 
Chairman of a Committee to inquire into certain proceedings 
of the magistrates, sitting in the Court of Sessions for the 
county, in the case of John Holland, a deputy sheriff or jailor, 
who had suffered the escape of Joseph Kelley, a prisoner in 
his custody; and the Court of Sessions, which included all the 
King's justices of the peace in the county, had undertaken to 
charge the damages upon the county, and apportioned the 
amount to the several towns. The claim agamst this town 
was £78.3.2; and in August this Committee was appointed 
and instructed "to inquire into the cause of the grant," and 
to confer with similar committees from other towns. In Octo- 
ber following, the same Committee were further directed to 
petition the General Court on the subject. No redress, how- 
ever, was obtained, and the controversy went on, till, on 
March 13th, 1775, the town voted that they would not pay it; 
and the matter was consequently merged and decided with 
the other controversies of the Revolution. 

From March 1774 to March 1775, he was first Selectman 
and Town Clerk. During this year, several other important 
measures were adopted. In regard to representation in the 
legislature, which they had assiduously sought for several 
years, they voted not to petitioji for the privilege any longer, 
but in December they passed the following Resolution : 

"That it is the opinion of this town that Representation is 
absolutely necessary to legal taxation, or legislation ; and this 
town has for a number of years been taxed to the Province, 
and has had no voice in legislation, which is a great griev- 




0^7-"?^ 



' ef^-vr^^w^sT^ 



FARRAR FAMILY. 365 

ance; and, in order to obtain redress, that the Selectmen do 
forward a petition and remonstrance to his Excellency onr 
Governor, that we may enjoy those privileges which are es- 
sential to the British Constitntion ; and that they call npon 
the adjacent towns to adopt the like measures, and endeavor 
that the nnrepresented towns come into similar measures 
throughout the Province." In January they chose a Dele- 
gate to the Provincial Congress, to meet at Exeter on the 25th, 
and elect Delegates for the Province to the Continental Con- 
gress, to meet at Philadelphia May 10th; and at the same 
time instructed their Delegate " to use his endeavors that the 
Province be put in a state of defence." 

On the memorable 19th of April, 1775, when the alarm was 
given that the British had marched out of Boston towards 
Concord, he, with his neighbors, seized his musket and march- 
ed to meet them. They were without commissions, and 
without military organization, for all military as well as civil 
authority was then in the hands of the King's officers. Hear- 
ing, before they arrived at Concord, that the British had re- 
turned to Boston, well pursued, he returned home. In this 
town, the last precept issued "In His Majesty's Name,'' was 
the one calling the annual meeting in March 1775 ; and after 
taking up arms, the last vestige of royal authority soon ceas- 
ed throughout the Province. 

During this year Mr. F. received two commissions on the 
same day, one that of a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, 
and the other that of Major of the forces to be raised for the 
defence of the Province, with an urgent request that he would 
accept the civil office, that being the most difficult to fill, 
mainly on account of the lack of compensation, and of chances 
for promotion. This he did, and in a letter to a friend, under 
date of Nov. 27, 1834, he writes : " In the autumn of 1775, a 
Court of Common Pleas, and Court of General Sessions of the 
Peace, was organized, (of which I was a member'') ; and held 
their sessions at Amherst at the times appointed by law, from 
that time to the present. Some of the Courts were held with- 

*= Both Courts were held in the same week, Thursday being Sessions day; and 
the usage was for the Common Fleas judges to sit as magistrates in the Sessions 
Court.-^ED. 



366 FAMILY HISTOUY. 

out the attendance of any one member of the Bar, at others 
two or three would attend/ But as bushiess was as scarce 
as attorneys, there was httle or no suffering for want of advo- 
cates to plead their causes, by any who had either occasion or 
inclination to litigation." Under what authority this was 
done, does not appear. The Provincial Congress at Exeter, 
and the Committee of Safety, who in the recess exercised the 
same powers, made both military and civil appointments dur- 
ing this year ; and a county congress for Hillsborough, which 
convened at Amherst May 24th, and in which this town was 
represented till October 27th, may have done the same thing. 
The Provincial Congress early applied to the Continental Con- 
gress for advice in regard to the "mode of civil government." 
This, however, was not obtained till Nov. 3d. The elections, 
in conformity to it, were made early in December, and the 
new Convention met at Exeter Dec. 21. They adopted the 
temporary Constitution Jan. 5th, 1776, resolved themselves 
into a " House of Representatives," and chose twelve persons 
to constitute a distinct branch of the Legislature, under the 
name of a " Council." After this all public officers were ap- 
pointed by the two Houses ; and on the 24th of the same 
month they made one hundred and fifty-three civil "^ appoint- 
ments, including twenty-nine judges; and among them, and 
probably the youngest on the list, was Mr. F., then twenty- 
eight years of age, appointed or confirmed as Judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, under the temporary Constitution. 
This judicial appointment, accompanied probably with a com- 
mission of the Peace, carried with it all the duties of a local 
magistracy for that part of the county, in both civil and crim- 
inal cases. The following letter, from a Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Massachusetts, may indicate something of the man- 
ner of doing this kind of business during the war. 

Groton, loth July, 1780. 
Sir — You have now in custody in your place one J. D., of this 
town, who is suspected of having been concerned in passing coun- 
terfeit money, and as his being sent into this Government may be 

■= Only three, Atlierton, Champney, and Claggett, resided in the county, two 
of whom were Tories. — Ed, 

^ And no military ? 



FARRAR FAMILY. 367 

conducive of detecting- others more attrociously guilty than himself, 
I shall take it as a favor that he may be sent by the person who de- 
livers this. He shall be so well secured here, that he shall be lia- 
ble to the justice of your State at any time. 

I am, Sir, your very humble servant, 

James Sullivan. 
Timothy Farrar, Esq. 

From April 177S to May 20, 1782, when he resigned, he 
was a member of the Convention for forming a new Constitu- 
tion, and one of the committee to draft the instrument ; and 
from 1779 he was one of the memorable th'irtij-two councillors, 
till the new Constitution went into operation, in June 1784, 
by which Judges were excluded from the Legislature. 

In the midst of the war, Oct. 14, 1779, he married Anna 
Bancroft, daughter of Capt. Edmund Bancroft of Peppercll, 
and sister of the late Dr. Amos Bancroft of Groton. This 
connection was altogether respectable, appropriate and happy. 

Capt. Bancroft was an independent and successful farmer, 
and also, like Dea. F., had been a member of the famous 
Middlesex Convention of August 30, 1774, of the Provincial 
Congress of 1776, and held divers other offices evincing the 
confidence of his fellow-citizens ; while the daughter possess- 
ed all those personal attractions and accomplishments neces- 
sary for an affectionate and confiding wife, and a faithful and 
devoted mother. 

A heavy affliction, hovvever, awaited them in the loss of 
their first child, a lovely daughter of near five years of age. 
She was born March 1, 1785, and died on Saturday, Oct. 17, 
1789. Notwithstanding the crushing severity of this disci- 
pline, they did not shut themselves up to inordinate grief, but 
rather, on the morrow, being the first day of the week, follow- 
ed the submissive example of God's ancient servant, who, 
in similar circumstances, "arose and washed himself, and 
changed his apparel, and came unto the house of God, and 
worshipped." The stone that marks her resting-place, by the 
side of her uncle James, in the Hill burying-ground, bears this 
sorrowful, but hopeful inscription : 

" Farewell, sweet child, we part in pain, 
But we shall live to meet again." 



368 FAMILY HISTORY. 

About this time, in addition to the duties of his farm and 
the Judiciary, he was much interested in laying the founda- 
tions of the Academy, e of which the history has been given in 
another place; and in the measures for forming and adopting 
the (Constitution of the United States, and organizing the Gov- 
ernment under it. In March 1791, he was appointed to the 
Bench of the Supreme Court. He sent in his resignation in 
1796, but on the urgent and unanimous sohcitation of the Gov- 
ernor and Council, afterwards withdrew it, and on Feb. 22d, 
1802, was appointed Chief Justice of that court. Having de- 
termined, however, to leave that Bench as soon as satisfactory 
arrangements could be made, he did not accept the office, 
though he continued to preside in the Court till Judge Smith 
consented to take it. This was signified to him in the follow- 
ing letter : — 

Peterborough, 2 August, 1802. 

Dear Sir — I have consulted with my friends in this place, and 
at length have determined to accept the office of Chief Justice for 
the present. I can truly say, that I have never, in the course of my 
life, formed a resolution with so much reluctance, and I feel as if I 
should repent it. I mention this, that I may avoid the charge of 
fickleness, in case I should soon quit it. 

I am, with sincere esteem and regard. 

Dear Sir, your friend and obedient servant, 

Judge Farrar. Jeremiah Smith. 

Judge Farrar finally resigned his seat in that Court in the 
succeeding April, and accepted a reappointment to the Bench 
of the Court of Common Pleas in his own county, where he 
presided till 1813. 

In this Court, soon after this time, two incidents occurred, 
which are rendered interesting by reason of their connection 
with the most distinguished son of New Hampshire. Mr. 
Webster was a native of this county,*" and in this Court re- 
ceived his first civil appointment, while a student at law, and 
here also made his first professional effort, immediately after 
he came to the Bar in 1805. The first was the occasion of 
the following letter to the Chief Justice : 

* The original obligation, by which he and others bound their estates for the 
expense in 1787, is still in existence in his handwriting. See ante, p. 197. 

' Merriiiiac county was not constituted till 1823. 



FARRAR FAMILY. 369 

Salisbury, July 12, 1S04. 

Timothy Farrar, Esq.: — Instances of favors conferred some- 
times occur, in which it is not a little difficult to determine whether 
a respectful silence or an open acknowledgment is most likely to be 
well received by him who has obliged us. But though it may be 
uncertain whether we ought to speak, it is yet sometimes difficult 
to be silent, when kind things are done in a kiiid manner. 

My honored father informed me, that on an expected vacancy in 
the Clerkship of the Court of Common Pleas in this County, you 
were pleased to mention my name to the Court as a candidate for 
that office. I should be happy, if on this occasion, I could express 
my gratitude in terms not likely to ofiend against the delicacy of 
your feelings. I confess I was gratified, as well as surprised, by 
this unexpected mark of distinction; particularly so, as I have not 
the honor of much acquaintance with you, and am destitute of 
many of those aids, which make young men known in the world, 
beyond the sphere of their personal friends. 

Office and emolument have, as I hope, their just and no more 
than their just estimation in my mind ; but aside from the consid- 
eration of these, and though I should never, in this case, possess 
them, the nomination will add something to my happiness, as I 
shall be the better pleased with myself, for having been thought 
worthy an office of trust and confidence by Judge Farrar. 

I am, sir, with high respect, 

your humble servant, 
Daniel Webster. 

Hon''''' Timothy Farrar, New Ipswich, N. H. 

The second is related substantially in Loring's " Boston 
Orators," as follows : 

At his first term, Mr. W. had no case for trial, that rendered it 
necessary for him to address the court, but he had an important mo- 
tion to make, not in the order of the docket, for w^hich he had made 
elaborate preparation. Not being familiar with the course of busi- 
ness, and having seen no favorable opportunity to introduce and 
argue his motion, after waiting the whole term, till the court stood 
on its adjournment, he rose, and stated to the court, that he had 
hoped for an opportunity to bring his motion before them, and had 
prepared himself to argue it, but that he now saw there was no 
time for the purpose. Nevertheless, he was unwilling to omit alto- 
gether acquainting the court with his case. With this introduction, 
he proceeded to make a short statement of the circumstances of 
his case, and the remedy for which he had proposed to call upon 
the court ; but, at that stage of the business, he would not under- 
take to argue it, though he had prepared himself for the purpose. 
47 



370 FAMILY HISTORY. 

When he had resumed his seat, the chief-justice, turning to his 
associates, remarked, in an undertone, which was, however, over- 
heard, " That young man's statement is a most unanswerable argu- 
ment," and immediately granted his motion. Mr. Webster has 
been frequently heard to remark that this incident has had a marked 
influence on his efforts in after life. It suggested to him the im- 
portance of clear statement, and the use of a plain style in discus- 
sion. 

Mr. Webster imbibed in early youth, from his father, the high- 
est degree of respect for Judge Farrar. Judge Farrar, the late 
Judge Jeremiah Smith, Col. Eobert Means, and Col. John Orr, 
were among the citizens of the County whom Judge Webster most 
respected, and taught his son to respect. Of Judge Farrar, Mr. 
Webster has often said, that he never knew a Judge of a more 
calm, dispassionate, and impartial character — a better listener to a 
discussion — or a man more anxious to discover the truth, and to do 
justice. In these traits of character he thought him very much to 
resemble the late Chief Justice Marshall. 

In reference to another trait of his character, it may be proper 
here to insert a remark of Mr. Webster's old instructor in the law, 
the late Thomas W. Thompson, for several years a Senator in 
Congress. Speaking of his firmness and courage under difficulties 
and opposition, Mr. Thompson remarked, that in case of clearly 
ascertained right and duty, he never knew a man that would march 
right up to the cannon's mouth and stand his ground in defiance of 
consequences, like Judge Farrar. 

In 1813, on a reorganization of the Courts, the three coun- 
ties of Rockingham, Strafford and Hillsborough were brought 
into one Common Pleas circuit, and Judge F. was appointed 
Chief Justice for the Eastern circuit. In 1816, on a political 
revolution, a different organization of the Courts was effected, 
in which he declined to enlist, and thereby retired from his 
connection with the Judiciary, after a continuous service of 
more than forty years. 

In the mean time, he had been four times elected a member 
of the Board of Electors of President and Vice President of the 
United States, and in 1804 was appointed a Trustee of Dart- 
mouth College, which office he sustained for over twenty 
years. While in this office, he and his associates had the 
honor of presenting a steady, persevering and successful oppo- 
sition to the unconstitutional and oppressive legislation, that 
sought to subject the property and franchises of that Institu- 



FARRAR FAMILY. 371 

tion to the purposes of political partizanship ; and of thereby 
vindicating and establishing, before the highest tribunal of 
the nation, the inviolability of the chartered rights of this and 
similar Institutions, for all coming time.' He was repeatedly 
nominated and urged to become a candidate for the Congress 
of the United States, and for Governor of this State ; and in 
March 1S17, Avas actually chosen, without his consent, to the 
State Legislature.*' These honors he respectfully, but decid- 
edly declined, and devoted himself exclusively to domestic 
occupations. 

His surviving children, a son and three daughters, had now- 
been emancipated, and all but the youngest had finally quit 
the paternal mansion. But a sorer bereavement awaited him 
in the irreparable loss of their excellent and benevolent 
mother. While on a visit to her third daughter, Anna, wife 
of the Rev. Joseph W. Clary, of Dover, she died suddenly, 
May 1, 1817, commending, in her dying breath, her absent 
and affectionate husband to the consolations of the Holy 
Spirit. She lies interred in the Cemetery at Dover, and beside 
her have since been laid her daughter Anna, her son-in-law, 
the Rev. Mr. Clary, and two grand-children, William Clary 
and Horace Hall. 

Thus, at the age of threescore years and ten, his home liad 
become desolate, and its appurtenances, to him. useless. He 
had neither the assistants necessary to enable him to use them, 
nor the dependencies necessary to stimulate, by participating 
in, the enjoyment of them. It remained for him, therefore, to 
divest himself of all those material accumulations, which it had 
been the business of his life to make, for the support, employ- 
ment, and happiness of his family, and which had now be- 
come mere incumbrances. This object was effected by degrees 
in the course of a few succeeding years. 

He now divided his time among his descendants and friends, 
employing his leisure to feed and store his mind from books, 

s Dartmouth College case. College v. Woodward, (9 Wlieaton's Rep.) 

^ " The Hon. Timothy Farrar was chosen to represent the town in the Gene- 
ral Court, who, after a very interesting and pathetic address to the town, declin- 
ed serving." — [Town Records, March 11, 1817. 



372 FAMILY HISTORY. 

and blessing his children and grand-children with the counsels 
of wisdom, and the practical exhibition of that benignity, 
cheerfulness and enjoyment, which are the result and reward 
of a life of piety and virtue. 

When the infirmities of age, and the desire of repose ren- 
dered journeymg irksome to him, he took up his abode with 
his youngest daughter, Eliza, and her husband^ Dr. Scripture 
of Hollis. Thus, narrowing his circle only as necessity sug- 
gested, resigning one source of pleasure and activity after an- 
other, not by the neglect or nonuser of any of his faculties, 
but only as power ceased, he gradually retired, not only with- 
out repining, but cheerfully and contentedly, to the cultivation, 
preservation and enjoyment of what remained, till the re- 
maining purposes of his long, useful and happy life were ac- 
complished. He never ceased to enjoy life himself, or to add 
to the enjoyment of others, while life lasted : uniformly prac- 
tising those virtues that are the means of preserving and pro- 
longing the faculties of body and soul, and affording an exam- 
ple of the calm and peaceful resignation, and Christian hope, 
with which, by the grace of God, the soul may watch and 
contemplate the certain and near approach of the last scene 
of life, and enter upon the realities of Faith beyond. About 
twenty years before his death, he had prefaced his last Will 
and Testament with these memorable and significant words, 
written with his own hand. "Daily reminded by the great 
age to which I have arrived, and the consequent infirmities 
of that period of life, of the mortality of my body, and that 
the time of my departure is at hand ; and entertaining a good 
hope, through grace, of a better resurrection, and a glorious 
immortality, I do," &c. 

He attained the age of one hundred and one years, seven 
months, and twelve days, surviving all his collegiate cotcm- 
poraries, and all the ante-revolutionary graduates of Har- 
vard College — the one hundred and fifty-three officers of the 
civil list in 1776 — the "memorable thirty-two Councillors" 
of the Revolution — and it is believed all his associates in the 
Convention for forming the first Constitution of 1784. 

An unadorned marble block, by his grave, on Elder Path, 



FARRAR FAMILY. 



373 



No. 1182, in Mount Auburn Cemetery 
inscription : — 

Hon. Timothy Farrar, LL. D., 

Born June 28, 1747. 
For more than 40 successive years 

from 1775, 
he sustained the office of Judge 
in the Supreme and Com. Pleas Courts 
of the State of New Hampshire. 

Blessed by a kind Providence 

with a sound mind, health, honor, 

and length of days, 

he maintained with meekness and firmness, 

the pure character 

of his Christian profession ; 

with uniform kindness and tenderness, 

the ties of conjugal and parental affection; 

with impartial and enlightened justice, 

the dignity of his official station. 

Satisfied with long life, and worldly good, 

and entertaining a good hope, through grace, 

of a better resurrection, 

and a glorious immortality, 

on the 21st day of February, 1849, 

he yielded up his soul 

to God who gave it. 

He was a just man, and feared God. 
Alas, my Father 1 



bears the following 




374 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Fletcher, Francis, b. in Concord ; came about 1760 ; settled 
on the farm since owned by Dea. James Davis (N.D. 58), then, 
hke the rest of that part of the town, an unbroken forest. He 
commanded a company in the militia for some years. He 
made one of the large number of our townsmen that was at 
the capture of Burgoyne, and lost a valuable horse while on 
that service. He died in 1797, ee. 62. His mother, widow 
Abigail Fletcher, died in this place in 1788, se. 88. His ch. : 
Mary, b. 1761 ; Jonathan, b. 1764; Ephraim, b. 1766; Sarah, 
b. 1770 ; Joshua, b. 1772 ; Francis, b. 1775 ; Lydia, b. 1776. 

Fletcher, Thomas, (s. of Francis of Concord, and brother 
of the above,) was here in 1754, and purchased of Abijah 
Foster the farm, now owned by Mr. Joseph Davis. The 
house is not now standing in which he resided. He was an 
industrious and wealthy farmer. In 1770 he commanded the 
only military company in town, numbering about one hundred 
rank and file. He d. March 17, 1811, as. 82. His wife, Es- 
ther, d. 1812, 86. 83. Ch. : Thomas, b. 1760 ; Esther, b. 1762, 
d. 1783; Abigail, b. 1765; Anna, b. 1768; Benjamin, b. 1771. 

Thomas m. Betsey Hoar 1788, who. d. 1802, se. 38 ; he d. 
1813, ge. 53. 

Fletcher, Peter, brother of the foregoing, was here about 
1762. His wife's name was Ruth. Ch. : Dorothy, b. 1763; 
Ruth, b. 1765; Peter, b. 1768; Ebenezer, b. 1770; David, 
b. 1772; Submit, 1774; James, 1778, d. 1778; Lydia, 1781. 

Fletcher, Simeon, came here from Westford about 1765 ; 
his farm was the one now owned by Dr. Gibson, on which he 
was probably the first settler. He was instantly killed by the 
falling of the frame of Wilton meeting-house, which he was 
assisting to raise, Sept. 7th, 1773. Some of his descendants 
still reside in town. 

Fletcher, Josiah, (son of Thomas.) He erected the house 
now owned by Mr. Joseph Davis, in which he kept a store 
and tavern. He carried on the Pearlash business for some 
years. He removed to Goshen, N. H. 

By a first marriage he had two children. His wife Grace 



FLETCHER FAMILY. 375 

d. in 1789. He m. 2d, Rachel Walton, in 1790, by whom he 
had eight children. 

Fletcher, John, b. in Concord, where he served his time 
with Joseph Adams at the cooper's trade. Came to this town 
about 1758 ; m. in 1759, Elizabeth Foster, dau. of Abijah 
Foster, the first settler, and she was the first female child born 
in town. He settled near what has been called the Hodgkin's 
corner, about half a mile southwest of the meeting-house 
where he built a house and planted an orchard. He was killed 
by the falling of a tree, near his own house^ Jan. 14, 1763. 
The family were attracted to the spot by the peculiar noise 
made by a cat which came into the house. His ch. Joseph, 
b. 1763, d. when he was nineteen years old. 

Fletcher, Ebenezer, (son of John,) b. 1762, m. Mary Cum- 
mings. Ch., Ebenezer, d. in Cornish; John, d. in Michigan; 
Polly, m. Peter Felt, d. in Illinois; Cummings d. at Enos- 
burg, Vt. ; Betsey, m. Ralph Roby, d. in Boston ; Sally, now 
living in town ; Nancy, m. Thomas Davis ; Dexter, resides 
in Stoddard ; Roby resides in town. 

When Mr. F. was fourteen years old, he went to live with 
Samuel Cummings, who built and then owned the mills in 
Mill Village, where he remained two years, when, in 1777, he 
enlisted, as a fifer, in the regiment commanded by Col. Nathan 
Hale (of Rindge), and in Capt. Carr's company. Of this 
company Pelatiah Whittemore and Jeremiah Pritchard, both 
of this town, were lieutenants, and quite a number of the sol- 
diers were also from this town ; they were what were called 
three-years men. The regiment marched to Ticonderoga and 
for some time made a part of the garrison at that fort ; but on 
the approach of Burgoyne, the American army retreated till 
they were overtaken at Hubbardston, where a sharp action 
took place, in which Mr. Fletcher was severely wounded and 
taken prisoner. After remaining with the British a few 
weeks, and partially recovering from his wounds, he contrived 
to escape, and after severe trials in the woods and among the 
mountains, without food or company, he reached the house of 
a friend, where he staid some days, till he was able to return 



376 TAMILY HISTORY. 

home. After he had sufficiently recovered from his womids, 
he served the remainder of his time in the army, and was 
under Gen. SulUvan, in his campaign against the Indians in 
the Genessee country. After his return liome. he purchased 
the miUs of his father-in-law, and carried them on very suc- 
cessfully for a long period. His first wife died in 1812 ; he 
afterwards married a Mrs. Foster of Ashby, who still survives. 
Many years since, Mr. F. published a Narrative of his Captiv- 
ity and Sufferings. It was well written, and passed through 
four editions; it is now a very rare book. He also left a MS. 
of a dozen pages, containing many facts relative to the early 
history of the town and the Revolution, and from these this 
article has principally been compiled. He died May 8, 1831, 
se. 70 years. His wife d. 1812, ge. 53. 



(Z^'ja^ycfLQ4^^ 



was from Ipswich ; he was great 
grandson of Reginald Foster, 
who came to New England in 1638, and with his five sons 
settled at Ipswich. He was of a very respectable family of 
Exeter in England, and died at Ipswich in extreme old age. 

Abijah Foster was born in 1710, and no doubt was sent 
here in the employ of the Ipswich Grantees. His was the 
first family which came here, and he nuist be regarded as the 
first settler in town, — but it is not so easy to fix the time of 
his advent. After a very thorough examination of the records 
of Ipswich, and almost everything that could throw any light 
on the subject, it would seem that his location here was in the 
spring of 1738. It is certain he was there in the fall of 1736, 
and was not there in the fall of 1738. He was accompanied 
by his wife and daughter. He undoubtedly had his choice of 
a lot for a farm, and fixed on what was known for a long 
time as the Hills Farm, a considerable part of which is now 
occupied by Joseph Barrett, Esq. His house, which was 
built of logs, stood near the present Bank building; the old 
cellar hole was visible within a few years. 

Mr. Foster was a man of an unsettled disposition ; he dis- 
posed of his farm in 1750 to Joseph Bates, and removed to 
what was formerly known as the Fletcher Farm, now owned 



FOX FAMILY. 377 

by Mr. Joseph Davis ; some vestiges of his cellar still remain. 
This farm he disposed of, in 1755, to Capt. Thomas Fletcher, 
and removed his family to the land now owned by Caleb 
Campbell. His house there, stood a few rods east of Mr. 
Campbell's barn ; the site of it can still be traced. 

Mr. Foster was in town in June 1758; but either in that or 
the succeeding year he enlisted in the army then employed in 
a campaign against the French and Indians; he was accom- 
panied by his eldest son Ebenezer, the first child born in town, 
who was then about nineteen years old. While the army 
was encamped near Crown Point, they both took the small- 
pox, and died. His widow continued to reside in the house 
he last erected, for many years. She joined the Rev. Mr. Far- 
rar's church in the great revival in 1786, and was baptized by 
immersion at her request. It is supposed she removed from 
town with her son Daniel. 

Mr. Foster m. at Ipswich, Dec. 13, 1733, Mary Knowlton. 
Ch. : Mary, b. in Ipswich, Aug. 1736 ; Ebenezer, b. here pro- 
bably in 1739, d. 1759; Elizabeth, b. probably in 1741, m. 
1st, John Fletcher 1759, — 2d, m. William Hodgkins ; had six 
children, d. Feb. 27, 1800, as. 60. 

Samuel m. Tabitha Hodgkins ; he built a small house in 
Mill Village ; was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and d. 
in the service 1780. Daniel, was a soldier in the Revolution 
for three years ; was a carpenter, and built the house now 
owned by Mrs. Obear ; he removed, about 1802, to Pakersfield. 
now Nelson. Ephraim resided with his mother, but during 
the Revolution enlisted for three years — was brought home at 
the expense of the town, and soon after died. Hepsey, b. 
1759, m. June 2, 1791, Isaac Appleton, d. 1839. 



Fox, Timothy, (s. of John,) came here from Littleton in 
1765, purchased lot No. 1, range 12, lying south of the present 
Bakehouse village, on which he erected a small house ; but 
about 1770, he removed to the land where his grandson now 
resides [XII. 3.], the present residence of the family, which 
he afterwards built. He m. Abigail. Ch. 

Timothy, b. 1764; Nabby, b. 1766, m. Edmund Briant, Jr., 

48 



378 FAMILY HISTORY. 

d. 1792; Jonathan, b. 1769; Peter, b. 1771 ; Samuel, b. 1773; 
John, b. 1774; Sarah, b, 1776; Lucretia, b. 1778, m. John 

Binney, d. 1841 ; Zedekiah, b. 1780 ; Lucy, b. 1782, m. 

Worcester of Stoddard. He d. 1827, se. 86 ; she d. 1808. 

Fox, Capt. Timothy, (s. of Timothy,) resided on the farm 
where his father had lived and died. For a number of 
years he commanded the South Company, was for a long pe- 
riod selectman, and often held other town offices. He pos- 
sessed a very cool, discriminating judgment, which was often 
used for the benefit of his townsmen. He was a good farmer 
and an honest man. He m. in 1787, Ruth, dau. of Joseph 
Pollard. Ch. 

Ruth, b. 1788, d. 1813; Mary, b. 1790, d. 1808; Clarissa, 
b. 1791, d. 1803; Nabby, b. 1798, m. John F. Hills ; Timothy, 
b. 1795 ; Marinda, b. 1797, d. 1798 ; Rowena, b. 1799, m. 
Lewis Epps. Mrs. Ruth Fox d. 1801, as. 34. Wife Sally, 
dau. of Samuel Bartlett, d. 1803, ae. 27. He m. in 1807 Han- 
nah Flint, of Lincoln. Ch. : Catherine, b. 1808, d. 1811 ; 
Emily, b. 1809, m. Lieut. J. F. Miller, U. S. N., d. 1846; Eph- 
raim F., b. 1814; George, b. 1816; Caroline H., b. 1819, m. 
James F. Miller. 

Fox, Timothy, (son of Capt. Timothy,) b. 1795, was well 
educated, and spent the earlier part of his life in teaching; 
he afterwards traded for several years in the Barrett store, at 
" Mechanics' Corner," as it was sometimes called ; and in 
1837, he, with his brother-in-law, Lewis Epps, and one or 
two others, purchased a township in Iowa, most of the early 
settlers of which went from this town. It is now the thriving 
town of Denmark, near Fort Madison. He m. Elizabeth 
Smith of Peterborough. 

John G owing, (or Going,) from Reading, came here during 
the Revolution, and purchased the farm near Mill Village, 
owned by John Brooks. He d. 1805. se. 87. His only son 
John, resided on the same place ; he d. 1831, se. 78, and 
had one son, Noah, who now lives on the paternal farm. 



THE GOULD FAMI LY. 

The Goulds, who were among the early settlers of the town, 
came from Chelmsford. Their connection with the families 
who first came to this country, has not been distinctly traced, 
though there is little doubt that they were derived from 
Zaccheus Gould of Boxford. The family has been somewhat 
remarkable for habits of unusual sedateness, and for quiet, 
unwearied industry ; which may account for their great 
longevity. 

Gould, Adam, with his wife, came here very soon after the 
first settlement of the town, and lived in a house built by Col. 
Kidder on one of his lots on the Kidder mountain, near the 
old Peterborough road, where they seemed to act as shepherds 
over the cattle in the mountain pastures. They were proba- 
bly somewhat advanced in life at the time of their removal, 
as they left behind them two sons, Abraham and Abijah, who 
never lived with them in New Ipswich. He was exempted 
from taxes for several years before his death. On account of 
their patriarchal age, and as they lived as it were alone in the 
world, they were usually designated by the names of Adam 
and Eve. She died in 1790, and he probably went to his sons 
soon after. 

Gould, Benjamin, of Chelmsford, was brother of Adam. He 
was born 1695, m. Sarah Parkhurst 1722. His ch. 1. Benja- 
min, b. 1723, d. 1742, as. 19; 2. Ebenezer, b. 1726, d. 1816, 

8B. 90, lived in Chelmsford; 3. Sarah, b. 1728, m. Hill, 

of Merrimac, d. 1817, se. 89; 4. Mary, b. 1720, d. 1736; 5. 
Simeon ; 6. Reuben, b. 1736, d. 1809, as. 72, lived in Westford ; 
7. Lydia, b. 1738, m. Asa Duren, and afterwards — Fletcher, 
d. 1822, EG. 84 ; 8. Nathaniel ; 9. Mary, b. 1746, m. Reuben 
Duren, d. 1823, se. 77, lived in Billerica. The seven children 



380 FAMILY HISTORY. 

who passed the age of childhood, hved to the average age of 
82 years. 

Gould, Simeon, b. Aug. 17, 1733, came to New Ipswich be- 
fore 1760, and settled on a farm in the northern range (N. D. 
40), a part of which afterwards fell within the limits of Tem- 
ple. He several times volmiteered during the Revolution, 
and was an officer in a company which was engaged at 
the capture of Burgoyne. He died in 1827, se. nearly 94. 
He m. 1st. Elizabeth Pike; their ch. 1. Simeon, b. 1761, m. 
Sarah Lane of Bedford, and settled in Stoddard, where he 
was an influential citizen and very worthy man; 2. John; 

3. Sarah, b. 1766, m. Bigelovv of Plymouth, Vt. ; 4. 

Betty, b. 1768, m. Peter Darby of Plymouth, Vt. ; 5. Marga- 
ret, b. 1770, m. Moses Start, and removed to Enosburg, Vt. ; 
6. Ambrose, b. 1772, m. 1st, Susan Farley of HoUis, — 2d, 
widow Lawrence ; 1. Polly, b. 1774, m. Dea. S. Farley of 
HoUis. His wife Elizabeth d. 1779, se. 44 ; he m. 2d, Rachel, 
widow of John Cutter. 

John Gould, (s. of Simeon,) was b. 1763, and lived on the 
same farm with his father. He m. Susan, dau. of Reuben 
Kidder. Their ch. were John, and Reuben Kidder. He once 
volunteered towards the close of the Revolutionary war, when 
quite a young man, and is the only man now living, of the re- 
volutionary soldiers from this town. He was a carpenter by 
trade. His son John learned the trade of a cabinet maker, 
and long carried on that business in the middle of the town. 
He was for many years the town sexton, and kept a valuable 
record of the deaths which occurred. He m. Eliza Ann, dau. 
of Francis Appleton of Dublin, and had a son and a daughter. 
Both he and his wife died 1840. Reuben K. lives with his 
father on the old homestead. 

Gould, Ambrose, (s. of Simeon,) first learned the trade of a 
carpenter, and at the same time acquired an unusually good 
education. He soon entered into trade, and kept store in Bil- 
lerica, Greenfield, Mason, Hollis and Manchester, and was a 
highly-valued citizen. He was passionately fond of music, 
and a skilful performer. 



GOULD FAMILY. 



381 



Gould, Nathaniel, (son of Benjamin,) came to town at the 
same time with his brother Simeon, and settled on a lot 
diagonal to his (N. D. 43). He served the town in the capa- 
city of constable and surveyor, and among other offices was 
appointed by a vote of the town to " raise the tune on the Sab- 
bath," at a time when it was the custom to line, or " deacon- 
ize " the hymn. lie was one of the first persons in town who 
could read music, and took a prominent part as a performer 
and also as an instructor of psalmody during his life. He was 
an exemplary member of the church, and died 1808, ge. 67. 
He m. Hannah Shed, of Chelmsford ; she died 1828, se. 85. 
They had no children, but adopted his nephew, Nathaniel 
Gould Duren. 




Nathaniel Gould Duren, (now N. D. Gould,) the son of 
Reuben and Mary Duren, was born in that part of Chelmsford 
which is now Bedford. His father was a resolute and enter- 
prising man, of an inventive mind, and was distinguished, in 
his vicinity, as a contractor for building meeting-houses and 
other large structures. He received a premium for a model of 
a bridge over the Merrimac at Pawtucket Falls, against many 
competitors. It was constructed of a single arch, the first of 
the kind, so far as known, in this country, and was regarded 
by most persons at the time, as a wild scheme. He succeeded 
however, in erecting it. He was engaged in the pursuit of the 
British from Concord, and brought home some trophies, which 
were long retained in the family. His mother was sister of 



382 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Simeon and Nathaniel Gould. At the age of ten years he rode 
on horseback, behind his uncle, from Bedford to New Ipswicli, 
and engaged in farming. From his earliest years he displayed 
a fondness for penmanship, so that his father furnished him 
with a low desk, when quite a child, at which he might 
amuse himself in imitating letters; and one of the leading 
events of his life was, to see his own name written in German 
text by the family physician. Dr. Amariah Preston, which he 
copied times without number. As a teacher of penmanship, 
no man has probably had more experience ; and as an orna- 
mental penman he has no superior. At the same time he, in 
common with a large family of brothers, evinced unusual 
taste and talents for music. He procured in succession all the 
musical instruments that were then in vogue, and made him- 
self master of them. At the age of sixteen he commenced 
teaching, and from that time spent his winters in teaching 
grammar, music and writing schools. He was probably the 
most distinguished teacher in the latter branches in New 
Hampshire and the neighboring parts of Massachusetts, until 
1819, when he removed to Boston. He there devoted himself 
exclusively to teaching in these two departments for thirteen 
years, and had the field almost entirely to himself After- 
ward he taught in New York and vicinity for ten years more, 
since which time he has devoted himself exclusively to orna- 
mental penmanship ; and the rapidity and elegance of his 
execution, at his advanced age, is truly surprising. 

During the thirty years of his residence in town, no man 
was more engaged in the affairs of the town, or had more 
completely the confidence of his townsmen. He sustained 
nearly every office in their gift, and was appointed to conduct 
their most intricate affairs. In 1812 he was chosen one of 
the deacons of the church. As a teacher, it may be sufficient 
to say of him, that of the 60,000 pupils which, according to 
his computation, have at difierent times been under his care, 
no one ever meets him or speaks of him but with grateful 
recollections. He exerted a decided influence in favor of tem- 
perance and religion, at a time when musicians, almost with- 
out exception, were tipplers and scoffers. And he was the 
first in New England, so far as is ascertained, who practised 



GOULD FAMILY. 383 

upon the idea, now so universal, that Httle children could be 
successfully taught to sing. He first attempted it in the Sun- 
day school, in 1818, and soon after in private instruction. It 
was a matter of no little difficulty at first to obtain pupils, and 
it was chiefly by the strategem of amusing the children at his 
writing schools, by practising songs with them during a half- 
hour's intermission, and then inviting the parents to a sort of 
exhibition at the close of the quarter, that he finally forced the 
conviction of the feasibility of the idea, so as to feel assurance 
to advertise for a juvenile singing-school, to be taught from 
the black 'board. This he did in the year 1824, and soon had 
numerous schools in Boston and vicinity. Other teachers 
afterwards entered this department ; but he was extensively 
engaged, as a pioneer, in and around the principal cities of 
New England, New York and New Jersey. 

He married Sally, dau. of Amos Prichard, 1801. Their ch. 
are: 1. Nathaniel Perley, b. Nov. 6, 1803, d. Mar. 22, 1804. 
2. Augustus Addison, b. April 23, 1805, prepared for college 
at New Ipswich, grad. Harvard College 1825 — taught two 
years in Maryland, studied medicine with Drs. James Jack- 
son and Walter Channing in Boston, where he is now a prac- 
titioner of medicine ; is Fellow of the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences — of the American Philosophical Society, 
and of various Scientific Societies; m. Harriet Gushing Sheafe 
and has had nine children. [In 1806, N. G. D. took the family 
name of his uncle.] 3. Charles Duren, b. Feb. 2, 1807, book- 
seller in Boston ; m. 1, Sophia Lincoln, — 2, Sarah B. Wheeler, 
4. Mary Ann, b. April 4, 1809, m. Elisha T. Coolidge of Cin- 
cinnati. 5 and 6. Two children, b. in 1813, d. in infancy. 
7. Elizabeth Freeman, b. May 5, 1816, m. Joshua Lincoln 
of Boston. 8. Sarah, b. Sept. 22, 1818, d. July 25, 1820. 



GiBBS, Benjamin, was here in 1761 ; resided in the south 
part of the town, near Whittemore Hill. He m. Ehzabeth 
Button in 1763 ; had no ch. He d. 1805, se. 92. 



Hall, Rev. Richard, the successor of Mr. Farrar and second 
Pastor of the church, was born at Mansfield, Con., in August, 
1784. His parents afterwards removed to New Haven, Vt., 



384 FAMILY HISTORY. 

where he received his early education. He was graduated at 
Middlebnry College in 1808, with reputation, and immediately 
elected a tutor in that Institution. Afterwards he pursued 
his preparatory studies for the ministry at the Theological 
Institution at Andover till March 12, 1812, when he was or- 
dained Pastor of this church. In August of the same year, he 
mirried Lucy, the second daughter and third child of Judge 
Farrar, who was born Dec. 6, 1789. Their children were, 

1. Richard, b. July 1, 1815, d. Dec. 31, 1815. 2. Richard, 
b. Aug. 6, 1817, grad. Dart. Coll. 1847, missionary in Mine- 
sota. 3. Horace, b. April 6, 1819, grad. Dart. Coll. 1839. 
The following year he was Principal of the Academy at 
Hampton, N. H., and in the fall of 1840 he entered the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Andover ; but in the ensuing spring ac- 
cepted an invitation to take charge of the Academy at South 
Berwick, where he died of typhus fever Feb. 27, 1842. " His 
standing and character in College, and his success as a teach- 
er afterwards, gave sure indications of future eminence and 
usefulness."^ 4. William, b. March 11, 1812, d. June 15, 
1845; interred here. 5. Lucy Farrar, b. Jan. 1, 1823. 

Mr. Hall was a man of decision and energy; his labors 
were abundant and much blessed.'' Possessed of a superior 
intellect, and governed by a high sense of moral obligation, he 
gave himself, with singleness and assiduity, to his ministry. 
He cultivated his mind, and made it bear upon every depart- 
ment of his office. He brought to his public performances 
the matter of theology with great accuracy of language, pre- 
cision of statement, power of argumentation, pertinency, form 
and honesty of application. In ecclesiastical affairs he was 
an able counsellor and a firm executor. He had influence 
among his brethren and the churches of Christ. His opinions 
contributed to give weight to their deliberations and eflect to 
their decisions. The church under his care was almost con- 
stantly receiving accessions, and was among the foremost in 
pious and benevolent exertions. During a period of unusual 
rehgious excitement among his people, in the winter and spring 

» Boston Recorder, 1842. 

" N. H. Repository, 1846; Boston Recorder, 1825. 



HALL FAMILY. 385 

of 1822, the excessive labors, induced by his desire to meet 
the constantly increasing demands for the light and consola- 
tions of the Gospel, broke down his vigorous constitution, and 
his health utterly failed. A robust frame was suddenly struck 
in a vital part. While addressing an Ordaining Council at 
Bradford, in May, he was seized with hemorrhage of the 
lungs, which immediately terminated his active services as a 
minister, and gradually wore out his life. Thus cut down in 
the midst of his strength, for two years he languished under 
the accumulating pain and debility of hopeless disease and 
coming death, oppressed by the increasing wants of a helpless 
family, (the oldest son passing from four towards seven years 
of age,) but comforted and supported by the hopes of the Gos- 
pel. In the last stages of his disease, by the assistance of a 
beloved brother, he was enabled to reach the home of his 
youth, the quiet dwelling of his parents, at New Haven, Vt, 
and there, on 13th day of July, 1824, he died in peace and 
hope, — and there, in affliction and solitude, attended only by 
strangers, the feeble mother of his helpless children buried 
him, and placed over his grave the only existing monument 
to Jiis memory. He was an able and faithful, and for the 
length of his service, only ten years, one of the most success- 
ful of Christian ministers. 

His particular friend, classmate and room-mate, through 
college and at the seminary, Rev. Joseph W. Clary, married 
his wife's sister, Anna ; and as their families have since become 
one, the remnants of which are here, this seems to be the place 
for some account of them. 

Mr. Clary was born at Rowe, Mass., Nov. 21, 1786. His 
parents afterwards removed to Hartford, N. Y. He Avas or- 
dained at Dover, May 6, 1812, and married Sept. 1, 1813. 
His wife was born here Nov. 22, 1791, and died at Dover, 
Feb. 1.5, 1825." Children : 

1. Joseph Ward, b. June 28, 1815. 2. Timothy Farrar, 
b. April 24, 1817, grad. Dart. Coll. 1841 ; minister Thetford, 
Vt. 3. Edward Warren, b. Nov. 6, 1819, m. Charlotte Rus- 
sell, Aug. 17, 1847; d. at Holyoke June 16, 1852, leaving a 

^ Funeral Sermon, by Rev. F. Burt of Durham. 

49 



3S6 KAMU.V lUSrORY. 

daiightor. 1. Annv Fakkak. b. I'ob. t\ IS'22. o. Wii.i.iA^i, 
b. Jan. 1821: d. Fob. l.-». 1S2(>. 

Tho snrvivinu homls ol" tlioso two lamilios, ^Ir. Clary niui 
Mrs. Hall, intorinarriod Juno (». IS2(). In IS'iS ho loft Dovor. 
and was soon altor setllod at C^ornish. Avhoro ho dioil April K>. 
183.">. Thoir cliildron aro. 

1. V.\.\7..\ Faruak. b. at Dovor. Alaroh "iS. 1S27: Gkorgk. b. 
at rornish. April 2o. 182lK grad. Dart. Coll. 18.V2. 

As Air. (''lary uover was hinisolt'an iidiabitant olthis town, 
an extended notice of his eharaotor would be inappropriate in 
this place. 

Hartwkll, ErnKAni. was born in that jiart of Concord now 
Lincoln, bnt canio horo from Prinooton about 1782 : ho pur- 
chased, of Josiah Rogers, the house now owned by IMrs. Harr. 
as also a store which stood at the west end o( the house. 
He entered into trade, \vhich lie pursued with energy and suc- 
cess for about thirty years. His public spirit and enterprize 
made him popular, and he was elected to many important 
oliices : he was candidate lor Senator for several years, ami 
often held town otlioes. He was an early and constant Iriend 
to the Academy: and it was owing to his energy that several 
kinds of manntactures were introduced here. He owned the 
Scythe lactory on the South road : the lirst Linseed 0\\ mill, 
where the Factory in Hank village now stai\ds. He had 
Pearlash works near his house ; was one of those most deeply 
interested in the turnpike, as also ii\ some other enterprizes. 
He d. 1810. a\ 70: his wife d. 182t). a\ about 70. Hem. 
Mary Brown of Waltham: they had one child. AIaky. who m. 
Caleb Bellows of Walpolo. who had twelve children, oi which 
one, l.AiKA. resided hero, and ni. Dr. James Barr. lor so many 
years the principal physician in town. 



Heai.p. Timothy, was born in Concord, where his ancestors 
had resided for several generations. He was here before 
17o0. His name often occurs in the Proprietors and after- 
wards in tho town records. He was for many years. Clerk, 
and was chairman oi nearly every commiiteo lor laying out 
roads or respecting land claims. He resided in the oast part 



IIEALD FAMILY. 387 

of tlin town, on tlio lino of Mason, on what was afterwards 
tfio f'iorc.-o IMarr;: fie removed to Maine about 1770. Ch. 
'I'iMOTiiv, ]). I74<.i- John, h. UrA ; .SfBvr-, b. Uryr)-^ Jonas, b. 
1757; JosiAH, b. 1750. A Josfah }Ira/,i», probably brother to 
ffie above, was here in I75'1, and also resided on the Pierce 
[jl.'ice. 

f[i;A(,i), Thomas, (brother of the above) was here when a 
young man, probably soon after his brother; for some years 
they seemed to have held their property together, but about 
1770 Thomas purchased 'I'imotby's .share, and, a few years 
after, erected tlie old tavern hou.se, now owned by Mr. Sam'l 
Mstabrooks. He was a man of good abilities and education. 
At tbe alarm con.sec|uent on "Concord fight," he was com- 
mander of the militia, and displayed much energy on that 
occasion, and undoubtedly took the direction of the large force 
that went from town. He probably returned after a few 
days service, fn 1770 he commanded a company from this 
town and the vicinity, at the time Ticonderoga was taken, 
and the next year was at the head of a company at the cap- 
ture of Hurgoyne. and was soon after appointed a colonel. It 
is believefl he commanded quite a body of troops which went 
to Coos, on an alarm during the war. 

His wife, Sibyl, d. 1788. He d. Aug. 20, 1800, fj;. 73. Ch. 
Thomas, b. 1708; Himkon, b. 1773, d. 1774; Nathan, b. 1775; 
Simon, b. 1777, d'. 1779; Jona.s, b. 1780. He m. 2d, in 1788, 
Delia Blanchard. Ch. Cilman, b. 1790; Sibyl, b. 1792; Pol- 
ly, b. 1790 ; a .son b. 1800, now living in town. His widow 
afterwards m. Dea. James Chandler, and d. 1845, aE. 86. 

Thomas Heald, the son of Col. Thomas Heald by wife 

Sibyl , was b. at N. Ipsv/ich, March 31, 1768, grad. at 

D. Col. 1794; .studied law with Jonathan Fay, Ivsq., of Con- 
cord, Mass., and was admitted to the bar about 1800; about 
1797 he went to the West Indies, to manage .some commercial 
affairs, and in 1798 wa.'j appointed a Lieutenant in the United 
States Army ; was captain of a troop of cavalry at Concord. 
He remained in the practice of law at Concord till about 181.3, 
when he moved to or near Montpelier, Vt., and thence to 



388 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Blakely, Ala., where he was appointed Clerk, and snbse- 
quently Judge of the Supreme Court, and died July, 1821. 

He m. Elizabeth, the dau. of Jonathan Locke, Esq., of 
Ashby, Dec. 1800, by whom he had five children. His wid- 
ow m. Elijah Newhall of New Ipswich, and d. May, 1843. 
Mr. Newhall d. Aug. 18.51. 

Mr. Heald was a man of more than ordinary talents, main- 
tained a fair rank at the bar, was of a jovial disposition, and 
was very humorous in his social habits, and somewhat famed 
for his wit among his brethren of the Greenbao;. 



Heywood, Samuel, came from Concord and built the house 
now occupied by John Preston, Esq., where he kept a public 
house for several years. He d. 1790 ; his wf. d. same year. 
Ch. James, Samuel, Timothy and Betsey. 



Hills, David, a native of Wrentham, came here about 
1772. He purchased the farm then owned by Joseph Bates, 
the most of which is now occupied by Joseph Barrett, Esq., 
the balance is covered by houses and shops, or used as gar- 
dens. He built the house now owned by John T. Stephens, 
and used a part of it for a store for some thirty years. In 
1775, when the Committee of Inspection for the town, under- 
took to regulate the prices of goods, they accused Mr. H. of 
not fully complying with the letter of their regulations, and a 
sharp controversy followed ; the committee published him in 
the papers, and Mr. H. rejoined. A copy of this correspond- 
ence may be found in the Revolutionary chapter. 

In " Sabine's History of the Loyalists " Mr. H. is put down 
as a tory ; this is an error. He is said to have been at first 
rather adverse to the proceedings of the Patriots, and as he 
was naturally an independent man, the doings of the com- 
mittee no doubt seemed to him very oppressive and dictatorial, 

Mr. H. was a man of no little genius. In supplying him- 
self with water, he resorted to a most successful expedient. 
He reasoned thus : if my neighbor at the top of the hill, ob- 
tains water by digging sixty feet, why may not I obtain the 
same by running a shaft into the side of the hill till I reach 
the same point. He acted upon the obvious conclusion, and 



HILLS FAMILY. 389 

made a horizontal well, which not only supplied a perpetual 
stream to his house without the trouble of drawing, but 
afforded a most ample and capital cellar for the storage of 
butter, cheese and other articles from both heat and cold. He 
constructed a scraper, and a left-handed plough, so as to be 
able to plough down hill in constructing the road from his 
house to the old Academy. He was a most excellent farmer, 
and employed many processes in ditching and manuring, 
which were altogether in advance of his fellow-townsmen. 
His fruit was of the best kind, and never failed ; and it is 
quite remarkable that he employed a process for preserving 
the trees from canker worms, which was tantamount to the 
only effectual one now employed, and is good evidence of his 
careful observation and ingenuity. He led the stream, which 
ran down the road in the early part of the year, to each of 
his trees, and dug a trench so as to encircle each one with 
water — thus at the same time watering the tree and protect- 
ing it from worms. 

He carried on Potash Manufacturing, in a building that 
stood where the bank does now, the offal of which he made 
subservient to his farming processes. As a tradesman, he 
was exact to a proverb. For many years before his death he 
was affected with shaking palsy. He d. in 1815, se. 79. By 
his first wife, Hannah [Fales,] who d. 1777, ge. 30, his ch. were 
Martha, m. Wm. Hall ; Hannah, m. John Wheeler, parents of 
Rev. John Wheeler, President of the University of Vermont; 
Mary, m. Noah Bartlett ; Melettah, d. 1778. He m. a 2d 

time in 1779, , and she d. 1803, ee. 48. Ch. Sarah, 

m. William Hall ; John Fales ; David ; Meletiah ; Susannah 
and Jabez ; several of his ch. died young. His third wife 
was the widow of Capt. Abijah Smith, and d. in 1815, ae. 71. 

Hills, John Fales, (son of David) b. 1780, succeeded his 
father in his farming and trading concerns. His store was at 
first on the spot where the house of Joseph Barrett, Esq. now 
stands, but was removed to the opposite side of the way and 
was long occupied by Sampson Fletcher. He commenced 
the brick house above alluded to, but died before its comple- 
tion in 1819, se. 39. Like his father, he was prosperous in 



390 FAMILY HISTORY. 

business, scrupulously exact in his dealings, strongly wedded 
to his opinions, and unyielding whenever he considered his 
rights in any way invaded ; hence his legal claims were 
never allowed to remain unsatisfied or at least imtried. He 
m. Abigail, dau. of Capt. Timothy Fox, and afterwards 
Esther Arnold, of Westminster, Vt., and had several children. 

Hills, Jabez, (son of David) went to live with his brother- 
in-law, William Hall, Esq., of Rockingham, Vt. as a clerk. 
In addition to the other characteristics of his father and 
brother, he has been remarkable for his recluse and taciturn 
habits, which he has practised from early life. He is seldom 
persuaded to partake of food with others, never rides, never 
speaks when words can be avoided, and wears the same 
outer apparel for years in succession. Hence he is extensive- 
ly known as "Jabez, the Hermit." In addition to his ordi- 
nary trade, he formerly acted in a small way, as exchange 
broker. By perseverance and econom)'", he has accumulated 
a large property, and is now a sort of private banker. 

HoLDEN, Samuel, (s. of Samuel,) came from Concord 1763-4, 
in company with Reuben Hosmer, whose sister Sally he 
married, and Nathaniel Melvin, who also married another 
sister. They all settled near the southeast corner of the town, 
south and east of the Whittemore Hill. Their children were, 

1. Samuel, who still lives on the homestead, one of the old- 
est men in town, and quite an active man : 2. Reuben ; 
3. Sally, m. John Knowlton, d. 1841, ae. 65 ; 4. Betsy. — He 
d. 1820, 86. 79, and his wife about the same time. 

Holden, Reuben, (s. of Samuel,) lived on the farm with his 
father ; m. Hannah, dau. of Amos Prichard. Their ch. were, 

1. Ira Samuel, resides at New Orleans; 2. Amos Prichard, 
merchant at Cincinnati ; 3. Edward Hosmer, m. Dorcas, dau. 
of Joseph Cragin, and lived the successor of his father on the 
farm, an enterprising, pious and highly respected young man, 
d. 1842, 86. 31 ; 4. Eliza Ann ; 5. Reuben Andrews, merchant 
at Cincinnati. The three elder brothers have been successful 
in business, and are among the substantial citizens in the 
cities where they reside. 



HOAR FAMILY. 



391 




d^ CfiJ ^^ ^H^O-^ ^ ^^' '^^ Benjamin,) came here 
£7^ "^ ' from Littleton, when there 

were but three settlers in the place. This was probably as 
early as 1742 ; he did not bring his wife till some years after- 
wards. His farm was on the " country road," east of the 
river, and was afterwards owned by Mr. Jonas C. Champney. 
He was the first blacksmith, and his shop stood on the south 
side of the road, nearly opposite his house. He was also the 
first innholder, being mentioned as such in the records in 1753, 
and was probably the first captain of the military company ; 
he was certainly in office in 1754. Capt. H."" may be consid- 
ered, for its first half century, as one of the most important 
and useful men of the town. He was born in that part of 
Concord now forming part of Lincoln, in 1717. While a 
child, his father (who was afterwards one of the proprietors 
of this town, ) removed to Littleton. The family are descend- 
ed from a wealthy banker of London, who came to this coun- 
try before 1640. He had a son John, who became a lawyer 

^ Mr. H. once told the late Benjamin Champney, that when he first came here 
salmon were very plenty ; and that one morning he shot one under the bridge, 
near his house, of such length as to reach from his hip to the ground. 



392 FAMILY HISTORY. 

of distinction and settled in Concord about 1660. Benjamin 
Hoar m. at Concord Anna Brooks. Children, 

Benjamin, b. 1750, d. 1752 ; Benjamin, 2d., b. 1753, d. same 
year ; Anna, b. 1754, d. 1755 ; Rhoda, b. 1756 ; Jotham, b. 
1757; Anna, 2d., b. 1760; Benjamin, 3d., b. 1762; Phebe, b. 
1765. Capt. Hoar d. Feb. 14, 1799 ; and his wife d. five days 
afterwards, ge. 84. 

Hoar, Jotham, (s. of Benjamni,) m. Mary ; they had 

ten children born here between 1787 and 1805, when he re- 
moved to Peterborough. He was captain of the South Com- 
pany, and afterwards major of the regiment. 



How, IcHABOD, b. in Marlborough, — was here as early as 
1754. Ch. Jonathan, b. 1760 ; Melicent, b. 1762, — he resid- 
ed on the Nicholas place, (49 N. D.) and removed to Maine 
previous to the Revolution. 

How, Isaac, b. in Marlborough, was a brother of Ichabod, 
and came here about 1760 ; resided on the place occupied by 
S. C. Wheeler (59 N. D.) ; had a tolerable education ; was 
town clerk, and often held other offices. He was an ardent 
patriot. Rev. Samuel Webster of Temple, writing to the 
New Hampshire Committee of Safety, in June, 1775, says : — 
" I mentioned to you Mr. Isaac How, of New Ipswich, as a 
person I imagined suitable to be appointed Quarter-master of 
Col. Reed's regiment. I have since seen Mr. How, and find 
he is willing to take the place, of which I was doubtful, when 
I found that the wages were only three pounds per month. If 
you have not appointed one before this reaches you, I hope 
you will bear him in mind. He is, I think, a person of very 
good capacity and property ; has already been in the army, 
and has, as he tells me, the approbation of Col. Reed. He is 
of fair character, and much used to public business." 

Mr. H. served as Adjutant in this regiment till it was dis- 
banded ; and occasionally in other situations during the war. 
He m. Sibyl . Children, 

Vashti, b. 1763; Sarah, b. 1764; Is\ac, 1767; Joseph, b. 
1769, d. 1772 ; Sibyl, b. 1772 ; Susannah, b. 1774 ; Joseph, b. 



JONES FAMILY. 393 

1776 ; Sylvanus, b. 1779 ; Jonathan, b. 1781 ; Asa, b. 1784, 
Isaac and Joseph settled in town ; Jonathan is a printer in 
Boston. Mr. Isaac How d. 1799, a3. 66. Isaac 2d, d. 1824, 

86.57. 



Jones, Jonas, came here from Shrewsbury in 1790 ; he had 
ten children, five of whom accompanied him. 

When but ten years of age, Mr. J. went with his father, 
(Capt. Ephraim Jones of Concord,) to the conquest of Louis- 
burg, which took place in 1746. In the next French war he 
was an under officer in the expedition to capture Crown Point, 
and was much engaged in the scouting parties common in 
that war. The writer has often heard him relate his exploits. 
When at the head of about a dozen men, in the depth of a 
northern winter, they traversed the mountains about Lake 
George, making their beds of hemlock boughs, after tread- 
ing down the snow ; while a solitary sentinel took a tour 
of two or three miles along the track they had made, to 
see if they were pursued by Indians. In their excursions, 
their food was limited to raw salt pork and hard bread. 
At one time he captured a Frenchman, whose gun he retain- 
ed during his life ; he also preserved as a curiosity a piece 
of rind from the pork Avhich had been served out to them 
as rations. It was said to have come from Germany, and 
may have been the skin of a wild boar ; it was, at least, as 
thick as sole-leather. In one of the battles there, a bullet 
passed through his knapsack, but was stopped by the pork 
rind. Mr. J. through life was an intelligent and energetic 
man ; his death was occasioned by a fall from his horse, in 
Ashby, in 1817, at the age of 81. He was buried in the old 
burying-ground by the side of his wife Abigail (Hart well,) 
who died in 1809, ae. 65. He was the fourth in descent from 
John Jones, who settled at Concord before 1650. Ch. 

Lucy, b. 1764 ; Jonas and Ephraim, b. 1765 ; Richard Hall, 
b. 1767; Hefsy, b. 1770; Stephen, b. 1775; Henry, b. 1777; 
Isaac, b. 1780 ; Peter. 
50 



THE KIDDER FAMILY, 

IN ENGLAND. 

From researches that have been made, it has been ascer- 
tained that this may be called one of the ancient families'of 
England. It is certain that for several centuries a respectable 
family of the name is found to have resided in the old quiet 
agricultural village of Maresfield, or as it was more anciently 
written, Marsfielde, which is situated in the county of Sussex, 
about seventy miles from London. Some account relating to 
a transfer of land there, dated as early as 1270, in which the 
name of Kydder is a party, is said to be still extant. But if 
tradition is to be relied on, they are of the stock of ancient 
Britons, and existed as a family previous to the incursions of 
the Romans, Danes, or Saxons, and that they were not dis- 
turbed in the possession of their lands at the conquest. In 
some of the early documents the name is stated to be written 
Kyddwr : this would indicate a Welch, or more properly, an- 
cient British lineage. The late investigations of English and 
French historians seem to warrant the belief that but a small 
part of the latter race either fled or were driven into Wales ; 
and a strong probability exists that the more quiet and peace- 
ful were allowed to remain and cultivate their lands in quiet- 
ness. Of the derivation of the name much uncertainty exists. 
Kyd in Welch means a town on a hill, — and dwr a small river 
or brook ; while in Saxon, Kidder means a dealer in grain. 
Some changes seem to have been made in writing the name 
at different periods ; as early as about 1500, it was written 
Kydder — this spelling was retained for over a century ; in the 
Cambridge Church Records, as early as 1656, it was written 
Kiddar. 

Although the name has been found in different parts of Eng- 



KIDDER FAMILY. 395 

landj and at one time in Ireland, it is now well ascertained 
that previous to 1500, all of the name who were then on the 
earth were residing at Maresfield. But soon after that time, a 
considerable emigration of them took place to some parts of 
the adjacent county of Kent, and one family to London. 

A family of the name seem to have taken up their abode in 
the city of Canterbury, where there is a will on record, dated 
1543, made by one of them, in which he distributes his prop- 
erty to his children, who were tradesmen of that city. The 
post-office was held by this family for over a century. Some 
of the descendants were living in that vicinity within a few 
years, but they are now extinct. 

There were, a few years since, two or three families living 
in London ; they were the descendants of Gilbert Kidder, who 
was born at Maresfield about 1670, and came to London be- 
fore 1700. A wealthy branch flourished for near two hund- 
red years at Lewes in Sussex, and one family were long seat- 
ed at East Grinstead, in that vicinity, and here was the birth 
place of the patriarch of ihe American family. 

There has been a family residing in Kent for several gene- 
rations, of which some respectable gentlemen are now living, 
and are supposed to be the only males bearing the name in 
England. 

Vincent Kidder was son of George Kidder, and emigrated 
to London about 1630 ; he was a silversmith. He joined the 
Parliament forces under Cromwell, and went to the reduction 
of Ireland, — was a successful and brave officer, — attained the 
rank of major, — had a grant of near one thousand acres of 
land 10th of July, 1668, situate in the county of Kilkenny, — 
married Ellen, daughter of Adam Loftus and grand-daughter 
of Sir Adam Loftus. She was descended from Edward III., 
King of England, 1327-1377. His second son Vincent was a 
lieutenant in Capt. Cottingham's company at the battle of the 
Boyne 1690, afterwards a colonel, and was appointed assay- 
master for proving the standard of the gold and silver articles 
made in Dublin. A picture of him is still to be seen in the 
Goldsmith's Hall. A curious engraving of the Major is now 
in the possession of the writer, representing him in the milita- 
ry costume of that period, and the face bears a strong resem- 



396 FAMILY HISTORY. 

blance to some of the name now living in this vicinity. His 
grandson Thomas resided in London, where he was a mem- 
ber of the common council, and in the employ of the East In- 
dia Company. He was an antiquary, and wrote several let- 
ters to a namesake in this country, giving an account of the 
family, from which much of the above has been derived. He 
died in 1824, and was buried in the old churchyard at Mares- 
field at his request, although none of his direct relatives for 
three generations had been interred there. 

The most distinguished of the family was Richard Kidder, 
Bishop of Bath and Wells. He was born in 1633, at East 
Grinstead, the birth-place of the American immigrant, of 
whom he was a kinsman. His father was a reputable land- 
holder in that parish. He was educated at Emanuel College, 
Cambridge, where he was admitted a sizer in 1649 ; was 
Rector of St. Martin's, London, Prebend of Norwich 1681, 
Dean of Peterborough 1689, and in 1691 was made Bishop of 
Bath and Wells. He perished in the great gale, Nov. 27, 1703; 
being with his wife at prayers in their chamber in the Bish- 
op's palace at Wells, one of the chimneys, driven by the fury 
of the tempest, fell through the roof and buried them in the 
ruins. 

He was a talented, warm-hearted Christian ; his writings 
have been for more than a century and a half a text-book to 
the theologian, and a solace to the inquiring Christian ; they 
will ever remain an evidence of a mind that was far in 
advance of its day in true practical Christianity. He left 
two daughters, Ann, who died unmarried, and was buried by 
his side ; Susannah, who married Sir Richard Everard, Bart, 
and was one of the early Governors of North Carolina. They 
both resided and died in Virginia, where their descendants, 
who are among the most distinguished families, still reside. 
Among them are Richard Kidder Meade, a well-known mem- 
ber of Congress ; and Bishop Meade, the head of the Episcopal 
Church in that State. 

The following letter, written in 1850 by the Rev. Edward 
Turner, Rector of Maresfield, a distinguished Antiquary, gives 
many particulars of the family history. It may be considered 
as perfectly reliable. 



KIDDER FAMILY. 397 

" The antiquity of the Kidder family in Maresfield is un- 
doubted. The earUest notice of it that I have met with is con- 
nected with a deed of Edward 11., assigning certain rights 
and privileges within the Forest of Ashdown to the Rector of 
Maresfield. This will carry them back to about the year 
1320. At that period, and till about the time of Charles II., 
[say 1660] this forest was a royal park, called Lancaster 
Great Park, and the Kidders are described as ' the Baylitfs.' 
Their place of residence was within the precincts of this Park, 
and bore the appropriate, though not very elegant name of 
' The Hole,' clearly from the circumstance of its being situ- 
ated at the bottom of a deep forest dell. There is still a house 
there bearing the same name. Might not the name of Kidder 
then be derived from the nature of the duties attached to the 
office of bailiff of this park, which was abundantly stocked 
with deer — ' le Kidder ' 7 Kidbrook is still the name of a dis- 
trict of AshdovAai Forest. The deer on the coat of arms which 
you mention as in your possession, is evidently what is called 
in Heraldry lyininhig^ that is, a play on the name — Kid Deer. 
But might it not also be taken as bearing on my hypothesis of 
the origin of the name ? 

" It is, however, to the Registers of the parish that Ave must 
look for the best proof of the early connection of the Kidder 
family with Maresfield ; and from this source most extensive 
and satisfactory information is to be obtained. The parish 
Records commence with the year 1538, [30th of Henry VIII.] 
and among the earliest names that occur in them there is that 
of Kydder. It records a marriage that took place in 1539, of 
which the following is a copy : ' In y^ monyt of November 
and y^ ix day I wedded one Gabryell Altchorn and Mary 
Kydder.' And the next in point of time is a Baptism, in 
1541 : ' Item primus, Robertus Kyddr (sic) filius Thomi Kyd- 
der Baptizatus erat 30° die Novembris.' I annex the descent 
of the Family, as shown by the Maresfield Registry. I have 
also carefully examined the Records of Lewes and some other 
parish registers, and thereby extended and enlarged the list. 
The dates and names have again been revised, and may now 
be depended on." 

Note. — In the tabular pedigree on the next two pages, the double lines denote the 
.-descent of the New England family of Kidder. 



398 



FAMILY HISTORY. 



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THE KIDDER FAMILY, 

IN AMERICA. 

The first person of this name who came to the New World 
was Steven Kidder, who was here as early as 1633. He is 
mentioned in a letter of that date as having been sent out by 
Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason, to commence 
a plantation at Newichewanock, now South Berwick. As 
Gorges died shortly after, and his establishment was broken 
up, no doubt Steven Kidder returned to England, as from a 
thorough search no further trace of him can be found. He 
was born at Maresfield in 1609, and was therefore about 
twenty-five years of age when he came here. One Thaddeus 
Kidder came to this country about 1670 ; was at Lynn in 
1672 and also in 1676. It cannot be ascertained that he left 
any descendants, at least in the male line. 

James Kidder who was born at East Grinstead, in Sussex, 
England, in 1626, may be considered as the patriarch of the 
family, and the ancestor of all who bear the name in this 
country. In what year or by what ship he made his advent 
to New England, cannot now be ascertained. It is certain 
that he was at Cambridge as early as 1650, and perhaps it is 
fair to infer that he was here sometime previous. As the per- 
secution for opinion's sake in England had ceased some years 
previous, we cannot claim that as a cause for his leaving his 
fatherland, but must presume, that on coming of age he found 
his country involved in a civil war of uncertain length, and 
to avoid those troublous times, he concluded to seek a more 
peaceful residence with better prospects than a young farmer 
could then find in his native country. We first find him lo- 
cated at Cambridge, where he married, probably in 1649, 



KIDDER FAMILY. 401 

Anna Moore,' daughter of Elder Francis Moore. As the fam- 
ily of Elder Moore was then one of the most wealthy and 
respectable in that place, we infer that the appearance and 
reputation of our ancestor must have been of equal character 
to have entitled him to such an alliance. 

In 1653 he was occupying a farm of two hundred and eighty- 
nine acres, lying on the north side of Fresh Pond and Menot- 
omy River, which he had leased of Dea. Sparrowhawk three 
years previous. (This location is now in West Cambridge.) 
In the Treasurer's records of the colony for that year, now 
deposited in the rooms of the N. E. Historical and Genealogi- 
cal Society, his name appears, as having received ten shillings 
as the bounty for killing a wolf 

In 1653 the General Court granted Shawshine, now Billeri- 
ca, to Cambridge, and for several years it continued to form a 
part of that town ; many of its older residents receiving grants 
of lands, soon removed there. It is most likely that James 
Kidder was among the first to take up his abode in that wil- 
derness, and it is quite probable he may have gone there as 
early as 1653 or 4, and to have made, as soon as possible, the 
preparations for removing his family. It is certain he was 
residing there with his family as early as 1656, and this place 
may be considered as the home of the family for over one 
hundred years. Both he and his wife were members of the 
church in Cambridge in full communion, and six of their 
children were baptized there. When a church was organized 
at Billerica, they were among the first to become members of 
it. In 1662, he was a juror of the Court holden in Cam- 
bridge, and in the Court records of that year we find the fol- 
lowing entry : "James Kidder is allowed to be sergant of the 
Military Company at Billerica." This may be thought a 
small affair for the courts to take cognizance of, but the or- 
ganization of the military of that day was a matter of the first 
importance, and none but men of the most reliable character 
were entrusted with any office in it. It will be seen that he 
afterwards rose to the rank of Ensign ; his name is often men- 

1 As the record of most of the early marriages in Cambridge is lost, the precise 
time cannot be ascertained. 

51 



402 FAMILY HISTORY. 

tioned in the Town records of Billerica, where he was appoint- 
ed on various committees. He was also Selectman for six 
years. In 1675, when King Philip's war took place, he was 
in the public service, and kept guard over the small tribe of 
Indians at Wameset, now forming part of Lowell, and soon 
after was appointed to the command of a garrison-house, 
which contained seven families, including his own and that of 
his son James. He died April 16th, 1676, in the midst of the 
war, aged about 50, it has been suggested, from disease caused 
by his exposure in this war, which was the most trying time 
ever seen in New England. 

Thus passed away the patriarch of the family in this coun- 
try; and though no stone marks the spot or perpetuates his 
memory, the name seems destined to live through all coming 
time, as his descendants, now numbering some thousands, are 
spread over this broad land, from the Penobscot to the Upper 
Mississippi, and from Canada to Louisiana ; and although 
few of them have been distinguished as warriors or states- 
men, still some have been found as legislators in several of 
the States, and at least two of them have found their way 
to Congress ; while, after a search over the records of two 
centuries, not an individual of the name is ever found to have 
been guilty of any crime against the laws. 

Some of his hand-writing is still extant ; it is in the sharp, 
angular style of the times, and shows that his education was 
superior to many of the ^ A- l> ^4^. J^ 

early emigrants. His y/u^*-^^^^^ ^^Z^itP^^' 

3rl / / *• 



autograph is annexed. // 



First Generation. 

James Kidder came to New England, married Anna Moore 
before 1650, and had the following children : 

Second Generation. 

1. — Hannah, b. 1 Imo. 1650 ; m. Nathaniel Kettell, of 
Charlestown, 1672. 2. — Dorothy, b. 1651 ; m. Jona. Hyde, 
at Billerica, 1673. 3. — James, b. 3 llmo. 1653 ; m. Eliza- 
beth Brown, 1678. 4. — John, b. prob. 1655 ; m. Lydia Parker 



KIDDER FAMILY. 403 

at Chelmsford, 1684. 5. — Thomas, b. 1 Imo. 1657; made a 
freeman at Watertown, 1690. 6. — Nathaniel, b. prob. 1658; 
d. in Newton, in 1690. 7. — Ephraim, b. Aug. 31, 1660; m. 
^,>^achel Crosby, in Billerica, 1685. 8. — Stephen, b. Nov. 26, 
1662 ; m. Mary — resided in Charlestown. 9. — Enoch, b. Sept. 
1664 ; m. Mary — lived in Billerica. 10. — Samuel, b. Jan. 7, 
1666 ; m. Sarah Griggs, in Cambridge, 1690. 11. — Sarah, b. 
June 1, 1667; m. George Brown, of Chelmsford, 1689. 12. — 
Joseph, b. Nov. 20, 1670 ; probably died young. 

II.* James Kidder, Jr. (s. of James) ; m. Elizabeth Brown, 
Sept. 23, 1678. Resided in Billerica, where he died Dec. 15, 
1732, SB. 78 ; his wife d. Aug. 10, 1691. Their children : 

1. — James, b. Jan. 27, 1679 ; m. Mary Abbott, at Concord, 
1703. 2.— John, b. Jan. 27, 1681 ; m. Mary Phelps, at Charles- 
town, 1706. 3.— Joseph, b. April 21, 1683 ; d. July 30, 1683. 
4— Elizabeth, b. March 30, 1686 ; d. April 14, 1703. 5.— 
Hannah, b. April 27, 1689. 6.— Samuel, b. May 23, 1691 ; d. 
1692. 

II. John Kidder, (son of James,) m. Lydia Parker, at 
Chelmsford, Sept. 3, 1684. In 1686 he bought of Jonathan 
Tyng, 500 acres of land, lying on the west side of Concord 
river in Chelmsford, where he afterwards resided. Their chil- 
dren : 

1.— Anna, b. Sept. 12, 1685. 2.— John, b. Dec. 23, 1683 ; m. 
Mary. 3.— Thomas, b. Oct. 30, 1690 ; m. Joanna Keyes 1716. 
4.— Nathaniel, b. Dec. 13, 1692. 5.— Mary, b. April 9, 1695. 
6. — Joseph, b. August 11, 1697 — kept the Green Dragon Tav- 
ern in Boston, 1734. 7. — Benjamin, b. August 11, 1697 ; d. 
at Souhegan East in 1746 ; he was with Lovell in his expedi- 
tion in 1724. 8. — James, b. Jan. 28, 1700 ; m. Abigail. 9. — 
Jonathan, b. Jan. 14, 1701. 10. — Elizabeth, b. July 12, 1704. 
11.— David, b. October 11, 1706 ; hving in C. in 1767. 12.— 
Sarah, b. June 2, 1709. 

II. Ephraim Kidder, (s. of James,) m. Rachel Crosby, Au- 
gust 4, 1685. He resided on the paternal estate at Billerica, 

* The generations will be designated by Roman Numerals. 



404 FAMILY HISTORY. 

where he d. Sept. 25, 1724, se. 64 ; she d. in 1721. His estate 
was administered on by his sons Thomas and Benjamin, "Jo- 
seph being gone to sea." Their children : 

1. — Joseph ; m. Dorothy Drew, at Charlestown, in 1712. 
2. — Ephraim, b. April 26, 1687. 3. — Rachel, b. April 1, 1691 ; 
m. Thomas Taylor at Charlestown, 1714. 4. — Alice, b. Feb. 
8, 1692. 5. — Hannah — 6 — Dorothy — twins, born at Medford, 
Sept. 2, 1646. Hannah m. J. B. Rhodes in 1737. 7 — Thom- 
as, b. August 3, 1700 ; m. Lydia Cooper at Cambridge, 1725. 
8. — Benjamin, b. August 3, 1702. 9. — Richard, b. May 10, 
1705; removed to Dudley ; d. 1773. 

n. Enoch Kidder (s. of James) ; m. Mary — she died 
1742 — he m. Hannah Danforth, June 4, 1743 — she d. 1752, 
His residence was in Billerica, where he d. in 1752, se 89. — 
Their children : 

1.— Mary, b. Sept. 14, 1693 ; d. in 1693. 2.— Abigail, b. 
Dec. 16, 1694. 3.— Enoch Jr., b. Dec. 30, 1697 ; m. Sarah 
Hunt ; he d. 1781. 4.— William, b. Dec. 5, 1700 ; d. 1702. 
5.~Francis, b. Oct. 1, 1703 ; m. Elizabeth Hill, 1731 ; d. at 
Oxford. 6.— Mary, b. March 26, 1707. 7.— William, b. March 
13, 1710. 

n. Stephen Kidder, (s. of James,) settled at Charlestown. 
His wife's name was Mary. He was a blacksmith, a man 
of energy, and accumulated quite an estate. His will, dated 
March 19th, 1747, and proved July 18th, 1748, is on file in 
the Middlesex Probate Records. He leaves his property to be 
equally divided between his children Stephen, Isaac, John, 
Mary and Anna. Probably the others, as well as his wife, 
were then dead. He died in 1748, se. 85. Some of his pos- 
terity were living in Charlestown till about 1840. His chil- 
dren : 

1. — Stephen, b. Oct. 6, 1697 ; resided in Charlestown till 
1741. 2.— Anna, b. Dec. 20, 1699. 3.— Sarah, b. April 22, 
1700. 4. — Abigail, b. Jan. 1701. 5. — Elizabeth, b. Sept. 29, 
1703. 6.— Mary, b. March 26, 1706. 7.^Isaac, b. Nov. 6, 
1707 ; resided in C. till 1773. 8.— John, b. Feb. 13, 1708; m. 
Ann Walker of Boston, 1737. 9. — Eliza, b. 1710. 



KIDDER FAMILY. 405 

II. Samuel Kidder, (s. of James,) seems to have resided, 
while young, with his micle Francis Moor, who gave him 
the family residence and farm in Cambridge. It was situated 
near where "Porter's Hotel " now is, comprehending the pre- 
sent race-ground, and extending west to the borders of Fresh 
Pond ; a large part of it is still called " Kidder's Swamp," 
and a street near by is called " Kidder's Lane." He was a 
Deacon of the church, and a man of some importance in the 
town. He had a mill for manufacturing malt. He d. July 4, 
1724, 86. 59 : his wife d. Nov. 15, 1738, se. 72. The invento- 
ry of his estate amounted to £1138, which was a large amount 
at that day. By his wife Sarah Griggs, whom he m. Oct. 23, 

1689, he had children. 

1.— Sarah, b. Aug. 17, 1690. 2.— Francis, b. 1692, m. Ma- 
ry Prentice 1718, d. 1724, se. 32. 3.— Samuel, b. 1694, d. 
1718, 93. 24. 4.— James, b. 1696, d. 1714, se. 18. 5.— John, 
b. 1701, d. 1735, se. 34. 6.— Joseph, b. 1704, d. 1725, se. 21. 

II. Nathaniel Kidder, (s. of James,) resided in Newton 

1690, d. unmarried. His will, dated Dec. 12, 1690, was 
proved April 7, 1691. His property, consisting mostly of land 
in New Cambridge (Newton), is mainly given " to his brother- 
in-law and his wife," (his sister). A small legacy is given to 
each of his seven brothers and two sisters ; as Joseph is not 
named, it is presumed he had died previously. 

II. Thomas Kidder, (s. of James,) resided at Watertown, 
where he was made freeman in 1690, and no further intelli- 
gence has been had respecting him. 

III. Thomas Kidder, (son of John, grandson of James,) m. 
at Chelmsford Dec. 31, 1716, Joanna Keyes. Ch. 

1. — Thomas, b. Jan. 2, 1718, supposed to have d. young. 
2. — Aaron, b. Dec. 22, 1719, m. Rachel Bush at Marlborough, 
1749. 3. — Reuben, b. Jan. 1, 1723, m. Susannah Burge, 
1754, d. at New Ipswich, 1793. 4. — Joseph, b. Oct. 31, 1725, 
d. in Temple. 5.— Josiah, b. Feb. 20, 1727. 



406 FAMILY HISTORY. 

IV. Reuben Kidder and his wife Susannah had children : 
1. — Sarah, b. Sept. 24, 1758 ; m. Daniel Batchelder of Wil- 
ton, d. 1848. 2.— Miriam, (Milly,) b. April 10, 1760 ; m. Sam- 
uel Button, d. 1848, se. 88. 3.— Ruth, b. April 1, 1762 ; 
m. Doct. Jonas Prescott. 4. — Susannah, b. Aug. 5, 1764 ; m. 
John Gould. 5. — Abigail, b. Sept. 19, 1766 ; resides at New 
Ipswich. 6. — Reuben, b. April 3, 1768 ; m. Lois Crosby; she 
d. 1809 ; he d. 1817. 7.— Isaiah, b. Feb. 3, 1770; m. Hepsey 
Jones, at Boston, 1799; d. 1811. 8. — Josiah, b. July 27, 1771 ; 
m. Betsey Shedd ; d. at Hampden, Me. 1848. 9. — Betsey^ b. 
June 11, 1773; m. Simeon Stetson, resides at Hampden, Me. 
10._Joanna, b. Oct. 11, 1775 ; d. 1796. 11.— Lydia, b. Feb. 
2, 1777 ; m. Stephen Jones of Ash by. 12. — Jeremiah, b. March 
12 ; died in Maine. In 1844, seven of the daughters above 
named, met together at the house of one of them, (Mrs. Gould,) 
their united ages being 532 years. They had not all been 
present, at the same time, since the funeral of their father, more 
than fifty years previous. Five of them are still living, from 
75 to 90 years of age ; probably the most remarkable case of 
longevity which has ever occured in town. 

IV. Joseph Kidder (s. of Thomas) came here in 1750, set- 
tled on the farm afterwards mostly owned by Hon. Charles 
Barrett and Judge Champney. His house stood on the spot 
now occupied by the residence of John Preston, Esq., and he, 
no doubt, planted the magnificent elm, still so prominent an 
ornament of the village. He removed to Temple about 1770, 
where he died in 1817, se. 93. He m. Rebecca Wilder. Ch. : 

1. — Wilder, b. March 15, 1753 ; was living in New York 
State in 1840. 2.— Rebecca, b. Aug. 27, 1754. 3.— Sibyl, b. 
March 24, 1756. 4.— Susannah, b. Oct. 17, 1757. 5.— Lydia, 
b. Oct. 17, 1759. 6.— Molly, b. Nov. 1, 1761. 7.— Joseph, 
b. Aug. 22, 1763. 8.— Calvin, b. Aug. 22, 1765. 9.— Rhoda, 
b. Sept. 12, 1767. 

IV. Aaron Kidder, (brother of the above,) came here about 
1750. He resided near Dea. E. Adams, Jr. (XV. 1) ; was 
one of the first commanders of the military company, and 



J 



KIDDER FAMILY. 407 

held some other town offices. He died very suddenly, Nov. 
16, 1769, cB. 50. He m. May 19, 1749, at Marlboro', Rachel 
Bush ; she d. 1815, 8b. 90. Ch. (whose bhth are on town rec- 
ords) : 1. — Aaron, b. Nov. 18, 1764. 2. — Luther, b. June 
29, 1767. 3. — Submit, b. Feb. 8, 1770. Also, Thomas, Joan, 
Lucy, Rachel, Eunice, not recorded. 

V. Thomas Kidder, (s. of Aaron,) was a soldier in the rev- 
olution ; m. Ruth. Ch. : 1. — Thomas, b. 1777 ; d. in Vermont. 

2.— Benjamin, b. 1778. 3.— Sara, b. 1780. 

V. Aaron Kidder, (s. of Aaron,) m. Elizabeth Bush Ch. : 
1. — Aaron Bush, b. 1790. 2. — Luther, b. 1792; 3. — Jeremiah, 
b. 1794. 4.— James Carter, b. 1795. 5.— Betsey, b. 1796. 
6. — Benjamin F., b. 1799. 7. — Thomas, b. 1801. 8. — Joanna, 
b. 1803. 9.— Elmina, b. 1806. 10.— Louisa, b. 1807. 

V. Isaiah Kidder, (s. of Reuben,) m. Hepsey Jones, 1798. 
Ch. : 1. — Ann, resides in Cambridge. 2. — Sophia m. C. G. 
Salinus, resides in Charleston, S. C. ; has four ch. 3. — Fred- 
eric, m. Harriet M. Hagar ; is a merchant, resides in Boston. 
4. — Edward m. Ann Potter ; resides at Wilmington, N. C. ; 
has six ch. 5. — Harriet, m. Charles Wood ; d. 1849. 6. — 
George, d. 1815. 7. — Isaiah, d. 1822. 

V. Reuben Kidder, (s. of Reuben,) graduated at Dart- 
mouth College ; settled as a lawyer at Waterville, Me. ; m. 
Lois Crosby. He d. in Indiana in 1817. Ch. : 1. — George 
d. young. 2. — Henry d. at Port au Prince, ae. 15. 3. — Ca- 
MiLLus m. Sarah Herrick ; resides at Baltimore. 4. — Jerome 
G. resides in Boston. 

VI. Edward Kidder, (s. of Isaiah,) m. Ann Potter. Ch. : 
1. — Edward Hartwell, b. at Cambridge Aug. 11, 1840. 2. — 
George Wilson. 3. — Susan Smith. 4. — Gilbert Potter. 
5. — Frederic 6. — Anne, b. 1851. The last five were born 
at Wilmington, N. C. 



408 



FAMILY HISTORY. 



&'i%- 






'was the son of Thomas, who 
was the grandson of the imigrant ancestor of the name. He 
was born in that part of the ancient town of Chelmsford, now 
Westford, in 1723 ; — of his youth but httle can now be ascer- 
tained. He had the misfortune to lose his father when only six 
years of age, and he and his brothers had to struggle with all 
the difficulties incident to a state of orphanage. Notvvith- 
standing this, he obtained the rudiments of an education supe- 
rior to most of the young men of that day, and it did much to 
give him that station in life he subsequently reached. 

His first step in the world beyond his native town was as a 
surveyor, and owing to the number of new townships then 
being laid out, and the constant sale of lands, the office was 
an important one to the community, and generally lucrative to 
the possessor. Among the benefits it conferred, not the least 
was in making him acquainted with the locations, value and 
claimants of the various tracts of land which had been so 
freely granted by the General Court about this period. It is 



KIDDER FAMILY. 409 

supposed that in this way he first became acquainted with the 
situation of New Ipswich, whicli by the running of the State 
hue, had been taken from its original grantees, wliile the 
French and Indian wars of 1748 had caused almost an aban- 
donment of its territory by the few settlers who had com- 
menced preparing a home in that wilderness. With a spirit 
of enterprise so characteristic of him in after life, ^ve find him, 
as soon as this war had closed, making purchases of some of 
the Ipswich grantees of their dormant rights, at merely nomi- 
nal prices, and in the spring of 1749 had obtained a title to 
about four shares. He was the most prominent person in 
making arrangements for a new title, with Col. Blanchard as 
agent for the Masonian proprietors, and this was soon effected, 
and a Proprietory organization established in April 1750. In 
this instrument he, as well as his brother Joseph, are named 
among the grantees, and called residents of the town, but it is 
not supposed he was permanently here, until two or three 
years after. It was by his influence and exertions that a large 
number of young men, natives of old Chelmsford, including 
Westford, were induced to buy lands and become settlers 
here, and it is a well-known fact that we are indebted to that 
town for a larger emigration than any other. 

Many of them purchased farms of Col. Kidder, who was a 
large land-seller both of his own and that of the Masonian 
proprietors, who soon constituted him their agent. A venera- 
ble man, who well remembers him, and whose opinion gives 
it weight, says that Col. K. may be said to have been, for the 
first twenty years of his residence here, the father of the town. 
In 1754 he was married to Susannah Burge, a native of the 
same town as himself, and in the spring of that year she ac- 
companied him to the new township, making the twenty-fifth 
married woman here. Mr. Kidder had probably almost a free 
choice in the location of his farm, and whether he was most 
influenced by its suitableness as a farm, or the beauty of its 
scenery, is not known. It is to be supposed that the first was 
the strongest incentive, but from his known good taste we 
presume he did not overlook the latter ; certain it is, that no- 
where in the town could a more attractive spot have been 
selected. For his house he chose a location gently sloping 
52 



410 FAMILY HISTORY. 

to the south, while in front and on the left extended noble 
meadows for nearly half a mile in extent, which those indus- 
trious animals the beavers, as advanced pioneers, had already- 
cleared of the forest, and constructed dams, the remains of 
which a century have not obliterated, and so extensive, that 
this was then the broadest surface which was opened to the 
rays of the sun in the township. On the north was a conical 
hill, then covered with a thick grove of beech, which gave it 
the name still retained to the present time; while to the west, 
at the distance of only half a mile, was a range of mountains, 
the most prominent of which, for a century has borne the 
name of the " Kidder Mountain," and will serve to perpetuate 
his name to generations yet to come. On this farm, then said 
to be a mile in length, he commenced in the summer of 1750, 
the process of cultivation, and having several men in his em- 
ploy, he was enabled to pursue it with energy, and the virgin 
soil yielded abundant crops of grain, while the beaver mea- 
dows brought, with little labor, large crops of hay, an article 
which is not soon obtained in a new settlement. He soon 
turned his attention to the culture of fruit, on a very extensive 
scale, and previous to the Revolution had one of the largest 
and most valuable orchards in New England, containing the 
rarest varieties of apples and pears ; of the former it is very 
doubtful if any one orchard can at the present day, with all 
the boasted improvements in Pomology, be found, containing 
a greater variety of valuable kinds ; and while it has been 
suffered to go to decay, and many kinds to become extinct, its 
scions are still flourishing from the Penobscot to the Ohio. 
He erected the first mill in this region, and made annually 
three to four hundred barrels of cider, a beverage then univer- 
sal and indispensable in every family. All his enterprises 
seem to have been successful, and he soon attained an influ- 
ence and respect much more extensive than any other man 
within a dozen miles. A large part of the province was then 
owned by residents of Portsmouth, where his business often 
called him. He was on intimate terms with Gov. Wentworth, 
for whom he had a great respect, and from him he received 
a commission appointing him his " Majesty's Justice of the 
Peace," which contained much larger powers than in more 



KIDDER FAMILY. 411 

recent times. Under this, he exercised almost supreme sway, 
and his decisions were potential through this and the adjacent 
towns. After the county was organized, he, with some others, 
held a Quarterly court at Amherst, with probably more form 
and as much dignity as the Superior Court now shows. In 
1762 the Proprietors wishing an incorporation as a town, he 
was delegated " to go down to court and obtain the charter," 
which he did, and was appointed to call the first meeting. 
After this charter expired, he went again the second time, and 
afterwards presided at the reorganization of the town. 

About 1770, Gov. Wentworth conferred on him the title of 
Colonel of a regiment of militia, which was then a responsible 
office, and this appointment was probably the principal reason 
for the course he subsequently took in the Revolution. From 
the Masonian proprietors he received the grant, under certain 
restrictions, of a township of land, afterwards called Camden, 
(from the celebrated British statesman of that name, who was 
a friend of Gov. Wentworth,) but subsequently named Wash- 
ington. This grant was upon condition of his settling a certain 
number of families, building roads, &c., and in this enterprise 
Col, K. expended much time and money, but the Revolu- 
tion and the subsequent pecuniary difficulties which afflicted 
the country, prevented him from realizing his expectations of 
profit. After his death, through the exertions of his son Isaiah, 
the family realized what he had earlier anticipated. The 
mansion at the head of this article was mainly built by him, 
about one hundred years ago, and the front added a dozen 
years later. In the parlor was a chimney-piece of slate, highly 
ornamented and wrought under his direction, the centre-piece 
representing the family " Coat of arms," and in this room 
paper hangings were first introduced, which antedated every 
other house in town at least a dozen years. He also owned 
and used the first carriage within twenty miles ; a gentleman 
now living says he well remembers when the Colonel used to 
come out of church, hand his wife into the curricle, and when 
seated, his colored man Cesar would rein up his span of black 
horses and drive to his residence, much to the admiration of a 
large portion of the congregation, all of whom either came on 
horseback or on foot. Col. Kidder assisted in the oraraniza- 



412 FAMILY HISTORY. 

tion of the church, and was at first a member, but subse- 
quently adopted more hberal views in rehgion, and both he 
and his wife would, at this day, be claimed as Unitarians ; 
but he always paid cheerfully the largest sum of any person 
to the support of Mr. Farrar. 

At the commencement of the Revolution he held two offices 
under the King, and many of his friends were among the 
royal party. Having so high an opinion of the power of Eng- 
land, and amid strong conservative influences, it is not strange 
that he should have viewed the measures of the patriots as 
injudicious, and calculated to prove disastrous to all engaged 
in them. Declining to act under the authority of a " Commit- 
tee of Safety" or the " Provincial Congress," he was super- 
seded in his military command by an act passed in 1775, and 
from that time seems to have devoted himself to his private 
affairs alone. Although he always expressed his opinions 
freely as averse to the war, and therefore must have been 
extermely unpopular, still the respectability of his character 
seems to have preserved him from any of the annoyances 
which many of the loyalists of that day had to encounter. He 
paid his full proportion, which was the greatest of any person 
in town, towards carrying on the war, to which, from princi- 
ple, he was opposed, and which proved so disastrous to his 
pecuniary interests. In person he was tall, of a dignified ap- 
pearance, courteous and affable to his friends and respectful 
to all, and in his numerous business relations was honorable 
and just. He died in 1793, aged 70. His widow survived 
him thirty-two years, and died in 1824, aged 88. For their 
children see Genealogical table. 

Kidder, Isaiah (s. of Reuben,) was born at the mansion 
house of the family in 1770. In his boyhood he made consid- 
erable progress in the common schools, and afterwards finished 
his education at the Academy, under the tuition of Mr. Hub- 
bard. In early manhood, for some two or three years, he kept 
one of the district schools, and there are yet living some among 
his pupils who well remember his encouraging voice and pleas- 
ant smile. 

At the death of his father in 1793, he took charge of his ex- 



KIDDER FAMILY. 413 

tensive affairs, and, in a few years, settled the estate, and made 
valuable the land titles that had been in confusion. In Feb. 
1799, he commenced trade at Mason Village, then called Mason 
Harbor. By his enterprise and fair dealing, he soon won the 
confidence of the community, and, as his was the only store 
in Mason, Temple or Wihon, his trade was extensive and lu- 
crative. He continued this business successfully, for about six 
years, and when it was closed he said that thirty dollars would 
cover all his losses by bad debts. 

He was one of the originators of the turnpike, in which he 
made a large investment, and of which he was long time a 
director. He erected the large building, and occupied it as a 
store till his death, which has for many years been used as the 
only public house in the village. 

In 1S04 he purchased the farm where he was born, and to 
which he was much attached ; and, although no practical farm- 
er, still he continued to pursue it as a matter of taste. It was 
his pleasure to plan and put in operation various improvements 
in agriculture. In this connection, he was the first to introduce 
merino sheep into this part of the country, which has resulted 
in a great benefit to the community at large. 

In 1806 he purchased of the Hon. Charles Barrett his in- 
terest in the first Cotton Factory. Up to that time, its opera- 
tions had been limited to merely the process of spinning yarns ; 
but Mr. K. had closely examined the subject, and foretold that 
the manufacture of cotton into various fabrics was to be a great 
interest in New England, and, if pursued with energy, would 
be of much importance to the town. He commenced in the 
establishment as principal manager, and it was known under 
the firm of Isaiah Kidder & Co. With a sanguine spirit, he 
soon began the manufacture of various kinds of goods, such as 
stripes, checks, ginghams, and velvets, and for this purpose pro- 
cured various fixtures till then unknown in the country ; and 
as no persons proper to carry on these projects were to be 
found, they were procured from England and Scotland. A 
long series of experiments had to be gone through with, and a 
long time elapsed before the goods were produced. Much diffi- 
culty occurred in making sales. They were sent to the South, 
and sometimes to Canada ; but prejudice was very strong 



414 FAMILY HISTORY. 

against home manufactures, and their introduction was. con- 
sequently, exceedingly slow. It was left to later times and 
other persons to mature and carry out such enterprises suc- 
cessfully, and to reap the fruits of which he had first planted 
the seed.* 

In 1810 he was chosen to represent the town in the Legisla- 
ture, and again in 1811. No man was ever more popular in 
the town, or more interested for its prosperity. He was one of 
the Trnstees of the Academy, and its warm friend. 

In the spring of 1811, he was attacked by a fever, to which, 
after a few weeks' illness, he fell a victim. He died on the 
28th of April, aged 41, in the midst of his active business, 
with many plans for future usefulness, and the prosperity of 
his native town unfulfilled. One of his associates has recent- 
ly said, "his mind in regard to many of the great enterprises 
of the day was at least twenty years in advance of his time, 
and, had he lived, he would have been one of the first to have 
taken a leading part in some of the great projects of manufac- 
tures and intercommunication which have so benefitted New 
England." 

In all his various transactions he was high-minded and 
honorable, and he always commanded the respect of a numer- 
ous acquaintance, and left not an enemy in the world. His 
funeral was very numerously attended. A sermon was preach- 
ed by the Rev. Mr. Hill of Mason, from which the following 
extract is made : 

"To the mournful catalogue of such names of departed 
worth as a Bartlett, a Farrar, a Barrett and a Champney, you 
now have to add the name of Kidder. The general grief is 
his best eulogy. It shews you are not insensible to the worth 
of the man, and of the loss society sustains in his death. 
Possessed of a strong mind, cultivated by a good education, 
and enriched by reading and observation, his judgment was 
sound, active and enterprising. He was capable of much busi- 
ness and very extensive usefulness. Warmly interested in the 

* His death was noticed in the Day Book kept at the Factory, by a black line 
drawn across the page. This still remains. It was significant of a mournful 
change in that establishment ; as, deprived of its head, it lingered for a few years, 
an unprofitable concern, and finally became almost a total loss. 



4 



KNOWLTON FAMILY. 415 

prosperity of his country, and vigilant to promote the common 
welfare, he justly merited the confidence of his fellow-citizens. 
Just rising into public life, ah ! how are all our fond expecta- 
tions cut olf." 



Kinney, Samuel, was here before 1762 : he was several 
times elected a selectman, and held other town offices. 
With several adult sons he resided on the Capt. Bailey farm. 
He was among those who took an active part in the Shaker 
meetings. During the summer of 1777 he and his son Samuel 
were engaged as carpenters in erecting for Col. Thomas Heald 
what has since been known as the Estabrook Tavern, when 
they both took the small-pox from a discharged soldier, and 
died. They were buried near the road, between the brick 
school-house and the river. 



Knight, Enos, was b. at Salem, but came here from Tops- 
field in 1781, and purchased the farm of the Hon. Charles 
Barrett, on what is now known as " Knight's Hill." He was 
three times married, and had a number of children, most of 
them settled in Hancock and Antrim. He died 1804, se. 74. 
His wife Louisa (or Lovis) d. 1788, as. 62 ; his wife (Mrs. 
Mary Estabrook,) d. 1797, se. 57; his 3d wife d. 1802. His 
son Elijah resided here on the farm inherited from his father 
till his death ; he d. in 1828, and his only dan. Hepsy m. 
Ephraim Spoor, who resided on the farm with her father lill 
her death. They had four surviving children, the eldest of 
whom, Elijah K., is a police officer in Boston. 

Knowlton, Benjamin, (s. of Benjamin,) was b. in Ipswich, 
was here in 1752, settled in the nortbeast part of the town on 
the farm lately occupied by Capt. Chickering, (22, N. D.) ; 
m. Phebe . Children, 

Phebe, b. 1752; Benjamin, b. 1753; Henry, b. 1756; Lydia, 
b. 1758; Esther, b. 1761; Sarah, b. 1764; John, b. 1766; 
Eunice, b. 1769, m. Luke Rice 1791 ; Bethia, b. 1771, d. 1777; 
Hannah, b. 1776. Removed to New York with his son Ben- 
jamin previous to 1808. 

John removed to the south part of the town, and m. Sally 
Holden ; and several of their descendants now reside in town. 
He d. 1838, se. 71 ; his wife d. 1841, se. 65. 



416 



FAMILY HISTORY. 




Lee, Samuel, (s. of Samuel,) was born at Berlin, Ct. March 
18, 1803 ; his father was the grandson of John Lee, who was 
one of the original proprietors of Farmington, Ct. Mr. Lee 
graduated at Yale College in 1827, studied Theology in the 
Seminary connected with that Institution, was settled as Pas- 
tor of the " Evangelical Church " in Sherburne, Mass., Nov. 
4th, 1830. Having received a call to become pastor of the 
church in this town, he was dismissed from Sherburne, May 
5, 1836, and soon after installed here. Mr. Lee's ministry 
here has been energetic and useful, and we trust will be long 
continued. 

He was m. to Emily Fiske of Natick, Nov. 3, 1834 ; she d. 
March 5, 1843. He m. 2d, Lydia Coggeswell Wentworth of 
Concord, N. H. Ch. 

Sarah Fiske, b. Sept. 14, 1838 ; Samuel Wentworth, b. 
Sept. 12, 1847; John Wentworth, b. April 3, 1852. 



Mansfield, Daniel, was here from Lynnfield in 1765. His 
farm was on the town line, near Mason Village, and is still oc- 
cupied by his grandson. He d. 1816, sup. about ae. 75. By 
his wife Lydia, had ch. : Jacob, b. 1766 ; Daniel, b. 1768 ; 



NEWELL FAMILY. 417 

Lydia, b. 1769; Joel, b. 1771; Polly, b, 1773; Thomas, b. 
1775 ; Betsey, b. 1779 ; Israel, b, 1781 ; David, b. 1777, d. 
young; Newell, b. 1784; Willum, b. 1786; Sally, b. 1788. 
Two of his sons emigrated to Maine soon after the revolution. 



Newell, Ebenezer, came here from Lynnfield in 1780. He 
owned the farm now belonging to Mr. Isaac Stearns. He d. 
in 1783, and, at his own request, was buried in his orchard. 

Newell, Elijah, (s. of the above,) m. Hannah Gill. Ch. : 
William, b. 1790, d. 1845; Nancy, b. 1793; Hannah, b. 1792; 
James, b. 1795 ; Clarissa, b. 1797 ; Louisa, b. 1802. Mr. N. 
died in 1851, se. about 84. 

Newell, Onesimus, (s. of Ebenezer,) b. in Lynnfield. He 
came here about 1785. In his 19th year, he marched for the 
field of battle on Bunker Hill, but did not arrive in season to 
take part in the engagement. He was with the army at 
Rhode Island, under Gen. Sullivan, and was for some time in 
the garrison at Ticonderoga. He afterwards left the army, 
and entered the Naval service, and at Penobscot, after a brave 
resistance, was compelled to jump overboard and swim ashore, 
in order to avoid being captured. Soon after this, he engaged 
on board a privateer, in the capacity of gunner, and while in 
the act of elevating his piece, was wounded by a grape shot, 
which entered his mouth, passed out under his ear, and then 
struck his shoulder. The enemy's ship was taken. Although 
his wounds were severe, he soon recovered, but his mouth was 
much distorted. He again entered a privateer, was taken by 
the enemy and carried to Newfoundland, was soon exchanged 
and continued in the Naval service till the end of the war- 
He died in 1833, se. 76 ; his first wife d. 1786 ; m. Lydia . 

Ch. : Ebenezer, b. 1789, grad. Harvard Coll. 1818 ; Samuel, 
b. 1791; Seth, b. 1794; Sarah, b. 1796; Mary, b. 1798; 
Lucy, b. 1800. 



Parker, Joseph, came here about 1766; settled, first, ad- 
joining the Gould farms (44 N. D.), then on the Fox farm, 
and afterwards on a part of the Chandler farm. Capt. Parker 
seems to have been fitted by nature for the part he was to act 
53 



418 FAMILY HISTORY. 

in this town, particularly during the Revolution. He was a 
daring, energetic man, and had considerable influence over a 
certain class. He commanded a company of militia, and was 
prompt to march wherever his services were needed. He 
was at Cambridge, Ticonderoga, Rhode Island, and at the 
taking of Burgoyne. He was very popular with his soldiers. 
He died 1807, a). 66 ; his wife died 1812, a3. 90. Ch. : 

Joseph, b. 1767, removed to Lempster. Zachariah, b. 1770, 
carried on the potash business ; removed to Ludlow, Vt. 
Amos, b. 1773, removed to Lempster. Susannah, b. 1774, d. 
1781. Asa, b. 1777. John, b. 1779. Betty, b. 1783, d. 1807. 
Sarah, b. 1785, m. Sampson Tenney, lives in Illinois. Lydia, 
b. 1789 ; none of his descendants reside in town, 

Parker, Jonathan, (brother of Joseph,) was an early settler, 
a soldier and pensioner, pious, lived a bachelor, somewhat 
eccentric in his character, and d. 1820, eb. 69. 

Parker, Stephen, (s. of Stephen,) b. in Shrewsbury 1738, 
came here in 1765, and resided in the northeast part of the 
town (36 N. D.) In 1777 he was a lieutenant in the compa- 
ny of militia ; he enlisted a company, of which he was com- 
missioned captain; the members were from this town and 
Peterborough — the list of them will be found in another part 
of this work. With this company he marched from here 
about the 5th of July. Near the head of Lake Champlain he 
had a fight with some tories and Indians, whom he defeated, 
and soon after joined the army under Gen. Gates. He remov- 
ed to Nelson about 1780, and afterwards to Walpole, where 
he d. 1814, 86. 77. He m. Mary Morse 1760. Ch. : 

Jonathan, b. 1761; Almorin, b. 1764; Stephen, b. 1766; 
Molly, b. 1768; Nehemiah, b. 1770; Hezekiah, b. 1772; 
Elijah, b. about 1776 ; grad. at Dart. College ; is a lawyer, 
and now resides in Keene. 

Parker, Obadiah, came here from Groton in 1766 ; he re- 
sided in No. 1, now Mason, on the town line, where his dau. 
Hannah was born in 1754. He d. 1764. 

Parker, Samuel, from Groton, was here in 1760 ; lived on 



PRATT FAMILY. 419 

Champney farm. His ch. were: Abigail, b. 1762, m. Judge 
Champney ; Ebenezer, b. 1759, m. dau. Silas Richardson, and 
kept tavern where Esquire Preston hves ; Agnes, b. 1761, d. 
1766; Samuel, b. 1762 ; Sarah, b. 1764; Mercy, b. 1766, m. 

Benj. Champney, Esq. d. ; Jeremiah, b. 1767; Anne, b. 

1769; Sampson, b. 1771 ; Reuben, b. 1773, d. 1775 ; he d. 1806, 
his wife Abigail d. 1786, se. 54. 

Parker, Samuel, (s. of Samuel,) lived here in early life, and 
removed to Stoddard. Among his children were: Sally, m. 
Caleb Farrar ; Phebe, m. Jonas Champney, and afterwards 
E. H. Farrar, Esq. ; Samuel, who d. 1812. ge. 25 ; Luther 
taught school in Boston; Abigail. His wife Sarah d. 1816. 



Perham, Samuel, a native of Hollis was here in 1750. He, 
as well as his brother, were employed by Col. Kidder, and 
lived on the road west of him. His son Asa d. by sickness in 
the army during the revolution. 

Perham, Ezekiel, (bro. of the above) was here about the 
same time. 



Pratt, John, a native of Reading, came here in 1767, set- 
tled in the west part of the town (XV. 3.) He had several 
children. He d. 1799, ee. 75 ; his wife d. 1812, se. 88. 

Pratt, John, (s. of the above,) came here in 1785, and suc- 
ceeded his father on the farm now owned by the town. He 
had received a good education for those times, and was much 
employed in the business of the town. He was very firm in 
his opinions when once formed ; was an energetic and suc- 
cessful farmer, and became quite wealthy. His house was 
burned in 1806. He d. Feb. 4, 1816, se. 67 ; his wife Hannah 
died four days after, se. 74. 

They had no children, but Pratt's Pond and Mountain will 
perpetuate the name. His estate, now the Poor House Farm, 
fell into the hands of his brother-in-law, Nathan Robbins. — 
The following account of the burning of his house was written 
at the lime, by Miss Ruth Bacheller : 

" Dec. 29, 1806. — This morning the most melancholy event 



420 FAMILY HISTORY. 

has occured that ever took place in town : The house of Lieut. 
John Pratt was consumed by fire. J. J., who is a foreigner, 
rose at about four o'clock in the morning, and on coming out 
of his chamber, his astonished eyes beheld the flames around 
the chimney extending to the floor above. After a general 
alarm to the reposing family, he sprang to the east chamber, 
where his daughter, a Mrs. Wheeler, slept. She arose, and 
fondly clasping her son of three years old, went down into the 
kitchen, which was filled with fire and smoke. 

"After a fruitless attempt to pass a door, she turned back, 
fell at the broad stair, and dropped her child ; but recovering 
herself, fled before the dreadful enemy. The foreigner, after 
awakening an elder son of Mrs. Wheeler's, now sought in 
vain for the child, and prevented the frantic mother from rush- 
ing into the flames to save her oflspring. He, with the mo- 
ther and the young man, escaped by jumping from a window. 
Mr. Pratt ran to the opposite side of the house, and broke 
in a window, through which he drew his aged mother. The 
bones of the child were afterwards found. Of the property 
nothing was saved." 

Pratt, Nathaniel, (probably brother of John, sen'r.) came 
about the same time, and settled near him. 

Pratt, Phinehas, came from Dunstable, and settled on the 
Carleton place ; had a large family, among whom was Rev. 
Phinehas Pratt, and Hannah, wife of Rev. Thomas Fletcher. 
Mr. Pratt d. 1848, se. S3. 

Prentice, Nathaniel, (s. of William Henry,) b. 1755; came 
here from Westford, where he had learned the trade of a cloth- 
ier, about 1778. He was employed by John Warner, who had 
a few years previous erected clothing works on the Falls where 
the Mountain Water Loom Cotton Mill now stands. He soon 
became a partner in the establishment, and, a few years later, 
purchased Mr. Warner's share, and for more than twenty years 
carried on the clothing business. He was an industrious, wor- 
thy man. He was descended from Henry Prentice, who was 
at Cambridge as early as 1G40. He removed to Peterboro', 
where he died. He m. Anna Hoar, and they had ch. : 




,/A // ^^'••-'^-■- 



PRESTON FAMILY. 421 

William Henry, b. 1781 ; m. Sarah Whipple, at Boston ; 
Nancy, b. 1783, m. Isaac Packard ; Polly, b. 1785, m. Wil- 
liam Salter ; Nathaniel, b. 1787, m. Sarah Chapman ; Alfred, 
d. yomig ; John, b. 1791, d. young; Alfred 2d, b. 1793, d. 
young ; Patty, b. 1795, m. James Holbrook ; Sumner, b. 
1798, m. Nancy Wright ; Lona, b. 1800, m. James Perham ; 
Lucy, b. 1803, d. young. 

William Henry, named above, was b. at the residence of 
his grandfather, Capt. Hoar, (see cut. p. 391.) Cast upon the 
world with only the good principles of his parents to guide 
him, at an early age he found his way to Boston, where his in- 
dnstry and perseverance soon opened the way for a successful 
business, which has long been pursued with an increasing re- 
putation for integrity. Many of his old friends have partaken 
of his hospitable house, and been enlivened by the stories of 
his boyhood, which was spent along the Souhegan, where his 
memory still loves to linger. He m. Sally Whipple, and a 
large and happy family are the result of this union. 



THE PRESTON FAMILY. 

Dr. John, the first of the name in this town, was the son of 
Capt. Samuel of Littleton, who was a descendant of John of 
Andover. The family were in Andover as early as 1672, and 
Capt. Samuel, with his wife Hannah, settled at Littleton about 
1728. He was an active and influential man in the town be- 
fore the Revolution, and, besides serving in his mihtary capac- 
ity, was town Treasurer, and in other town offices. His ch. : 
James, b. Jan. 10, 1729 ; Hannah, b. July 1733 ; John, b. Sept. 
22, 1738 ; settled in New Ipswich ; Mary, b. May 13, 1742 ; 
Peter, b. Feb. 17, 1743. At the age of 18 years, Dr. John 
served one campaign at least, as a soldier in the company of 
his father in the French War in 1756. The particulars of his 
early education, which was probably defective, are not known 
— but, at the early age of 22 years, in 1760, he settled in this 



422 FAMILY HISTORY. 

town as a physician. Thus, in one year, two of the learned 
professions were filled by two active young men of the same 
age, and, in a few years more, the other also. Nov. 29, 17G4, 
Dr. Preston married Rebecca Farrar, the sister of the minister. 
He became skilful and popular in his profession, and for more 
than forty years retained exclusive possession of the ground, 
except that, in the latter part of his life, he took his son into 
partnership, and, at his decease, left the whole practice in his 
hands. As a citizen, he was zealous, active and influential in 
all matters of general and political interest in the town. After 
the incorporation in 1762, he was elected one of the first board 
of Selectmen, and he often served the town as Representative 
in the General Court, and in other town offices. In 1782, on 
the resignation of Judge Farrar, he was chosen a member of 
the Convention for framing the State Constitution. During the 
Revolution, he was one of our most ardent Whigs, and did 
much to encourage the people to make the great exertions they 
did in aid of the common cause. Anecdotes of his wit and 
humor as a legislator have come down to our time, and the 
records of the town still preserve memorials of this trait in his 
character. He built the large house where his descendants 
still live, and resided there till his death, which occurred Feb. 
17, 1803, in his 65th year. His wife survived him more than 
26 years. See ante, Farrar Family. Their ch. were : 

1. Rebecca, b. July 16, 1768, m. Aug. 10, 1791, John Hub- 
bard, grad. Dartmouth 1785. 2. John, b. Feb. 15, 1770. 3. Lu- 
cy, b. Dec. 3, 1771, m. Oct. 16, 1794, Thos. Bancroft, of Pep- 
perell, who d. 1846. 4. Lydia, b. Oct. 26, 1774, m. Josiah 
Bellows, and lived at Lancaster, N. H. 5. Hannah, b. Jan. 
8, 1776, lived unmarried, and died at Lancaster with her sister. 
6. Mary, b. June 5, 1777, lives unmarried at the family man- 
sion in N. I. 7. Samuel, b. June 24, 1778, m. daughter of 
Timothy Taylor, Esq. of Dunstable ; removed to Norwalk, O., 
where he followed the vocation of editor and printer of a news- 
paper till his decease. On the evening of March 3, 1852, in 
descending his office stairs; he fell and fractured his skull, so 
that he died the next morning in his 74th year. It is said "he 
was much respected, filled reputably a number of responsi- 
ble offices, and left not a personal enemy." 8. Stephen Far- 



PRESTON FAMILY. 423 

RAR, b. June 2, 1780, m. Hannah Kimball, and lives in N. I. 
9. Timothy Farrar, b. June 2, 1780, lives unmarried at the 
mansion house of his father. 10. Peter, b. June 20, 1782 ; 
d. a young man at Cape Breton. 11. Nancy, b. August 10, 
1784, m. Oct. 1808, Seth King, who d. 1851. The widow and 
some of her children live with her brother and sister at the 
old family mansion. 

John, the oldest son of the above, was born Feb. 15, 1770, 
grad. Dartmouth 1791. He studied medicine partly with his 
father, and partly with Dr. Holyoke of Salem, and opened an 
apothecary's shop and commenced practice as a physician 
here, in connection with his father,in Dec. 1794. Jan. 21, 1798, 
he m. Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. Ebenezer Champney. Af- 
ter his father's death in 1803, he succeeded to the general med- 
ical practice of the town ; and, notwithstanding the adjoining 
towns were by this time supplied with physicians, he had oc- 
casional calls among them. After the Turnpike was built, 
he erected on that street the first dwehing house, being at that 
time the only one on that road, near the village, except the 
old parsonage house on the hill, which was appropriated for 
a tavern. To that place he removed his apothecary's shop, 
and there he lived till his death in 1828. He maintained a re- 
spectable standing and reputation as a physician, and was a 
good citizen. He served as Town Clerk for seventeen years, 
commencing in 1802, and several years as Selectman. He 
wrote a good, round recording hand, and the records bear am- 
ple evidence of his capacity as a Clerk, and occasionally of 
his personal feelings and predilections as a townsman. His 
wife and several children survive him, of whom John, grad. 
Harvard Coll. 1823, is settled in the practice of law in this 
town. Ch. : 

Ebenezer C, b. 1799, was an apothecary in Boston, d. 
1828; Rebecca, b. 1800, d. 1807; John, b. 1802; Eliza, b. 
1804, m. Elisha L. Hammond; Lucy, b. 1805, m. Francis K. 
Cragin ; Abigail, b. 1807, m. Benj. B. Brown ; Maria, b. 
1809, d. 1830 ; William Henry, b. 1811 ; Thomas Bancroft, b. 
1813 ; Rebecca, b. 1815, m. Benj. F. Whipple. 



424 FAMILY HISTORY. 



THE PRICHARD FAMILY. 

The family of Peichard, Prichett, Prichet, or Pritchard, 
as it is variously written, came early to this comitry from 
Wales, and some of them were among the earliest settlers of 
that part of old Rowley now called Eoxford. Pritchard Pond, 
(now Perley's,) on the line between these two towns, well 
known on the old records, was doubtless near their residence. 
Paul Prichard, one of the descendants, was born in 1721, and 
after having held several offices of honor and trust in that town, 
removed to N. I. in 1772, and settled near Mason village on 
what is now known as the Jefts Farm, (N. D. 18.) He was 
one of the most substantial and influential citizens of his da)''. 
In the time of the Revolution, he was a conspicuous member 
of the Committees of Safety and Correspondence, for giving 
instructions to delegates and representatives, for averaging 
claims for military service, for examining the Bill of Rights, 
&c. He contributed liberally of his means for the war, and 
had two sons in actual service. In 1779 he was chosen repre- 
sentative to the General Court, and for the three last years of 
his life was one of the Selectmen. He died 1787, se. 64. He 
m. Hannah Perley, whose ancestors settled on the borders of 
the same pond as the Prichards. She was a woman of un- 
common energy of body and mind, and could accomplish the 
ordinary labor of three persons. She had made the subject 
of midwifery a study, and had considerable practice in her 
native town. Nor did she confine herself to this branch of 
practice, but became quite celebrated in scrofula, salt rheum, 
liver complaint, &c., for which her fame was quite extensive. 
After removing to N. I., she had an extensive practice in that 
and the neighboring towns. She was always ready to answer 
calls, and allowed no hour and no weather to detain her ; and 
when the roads were so blocked up with snow, and the weath- 
er so tedious that others would quail at the undertaking, and, 
though unusually corpulent, she would mount the snow shoes 
and breast the storm over hill and dale. This she continued 
to do, until very far advanced in life, to the no small annoy- 



PRICHARD FAMILY. 425 

ance of the accredited physicians. She survived her husband 
twenty-five years, and died 1810, se. 81. Their ch. were: 
1. Sarah, b. 1750, d. 1785. 2. Amos. 3. Jeremiah. 4. Per- 
LEY, b. 1757, d. 1775. 5. William. 6. Sarah, b. 1762, m. 
Nehemiah Stratton. 7. Hannah, b. 1764, m. David Sher- 
win, parents of Thomas Sherwin, the present distinguished 
teacher of the Enghsli High School in Boston. 8. John. 9. 
Benjamin. 10. Stephen — all of whom, except the latter were 
born in Boxford, and afterwards lived in this town. The 
sons were all somewhat remarkable as large, athletic men, of 
sound constitution, and capable of accomplishing a large 
amount of labor. 

Prichard, Amos, (s. of Paul,) b. 1761, lived on the farm 
north of his father, which was a part of the paternal estate. 
He m. Anna Andrews of Boxford. Their ch. were : 1. Anna, 
b. 1776, m. Silas Cragin. 2. Perley, b. 1778, grad. Dartmouth 
Coll., studied medicine, m. Mrs. Stone of Billerica, went to 
Baltimore, and commenced business, and is supposed to have 
been lost on his passage to the West Indies. 3. Hannah, b. 
1780, m. Reuben Holden. 4. Sally, b. 1781, m. N. G. 
Duren (Gould.) 5. Amos, b. 1783, soon after the death of his 
father ; m. Jane Dustin, and lived in West Brookfield, where 
he died a few years since. Mr. P. was a carpenter, and died 
while building the Hills house, November 23, 1782, ae. 31. 
His wife survived him sixteen years, and died on the Camp- 
bell place in 1798, as. 50. 

Prichard, Jeremiah, (s. of Paul) was b. 1754. In 1775, he 
enlisted in Capt. Town's company, and was at the battle of 
Bunker Hill ; was afterwards a Lieutenant in the regular ar- 
my ; was at the battle of Hubbardston, and all those connect- 
ed with the taking of Burgoyne, and also at the battle of 
White Plains, where he received a wound, for which he drew 
an officer's pension during life. After the war, he married 
Elizabeth Smith of HoUis, where he resided a few years, but 
returned here, and constructed the tan-yard, wliicli he car- 
ried on for many years. His residence at that time was in the 
house he built near the corner, next south of Mr. Peter Clark's 
house. He afterwards removed to the John Wilkins farm. 



426 



FAMILY HISTORY. 




Residence of Dr. Stillman Gibson, (see p. 217.) 

and built the house now occupied by Dr. S. Gibson, where he 
resided some years, and then removed to the middle of the 
town, to the house next south of the Charles Barrett estate, and 
there spent the remainder of his days. He was a man of fine 
personal appearance, of great energy and enterprise, brave and 
resolute, and yet of great dignity and refinement in all his 
manners. He had an unusually good common education, wrote 
a beautiful hand, and served the town very many years as 
Clerk, Selectman, Representative, and in numerous minor ca- 
pacities, up to 1802. Chiefly through his eflbrts, the troop of 
cavalry from this and the neighboring towns was formed, and 
the command, which became a sort of heir-loom in the family, 
was first held by him. He d. 1813, se. 59. His wife lived 
many years afterwards with her son George. Their ch. were : 
1. Jeremiah; 2. Moses, b. 1789, a trader in Concord, Mass. 
and for many years Sheriff of Middlesex county ; 3. George 
W., b. 1792, a trader in Oxford, Vt., where he has been one 
of the leading men ; 4. Gilman, a merchant in Boston, and 
one of the first who engaged in the sale of domestic manu- 
factures on commission. He was an active member of the 
church in Essex street, and died of consumption about 1835. 



PRICHARD FAMILY. 427 

Prichard, William, (s. of Paul.) was born Sept. 19, 1759. 
He served in the Continental Army as a three years man, and 
was in several battles. He afterwards lived on the farm of 
his brother Amos, until, about the year 1810, on the death 
of his brother-in-law, Charles Cummings, he removed to 
the High Bridge, and carried on the saw and grist mill 
there, until they were removed to give place to the Souhegan 
factory. In his younger days, he was unusually attractive in 
his person and manners, and was highly respected through 
life. He was Captain of the Troop, and was killed instantly 
by being thrown from his chaise, 1835, se. 75. He m. Deida- 
mia, dan. Eleazer Cummings. She was found dead, and her 
room on fire ; and, from appearances, her clothes having 
taken fire when about to retire, she was almost instantly suf- 
focated 1840, ae. 69. Ch. : William, b. 1792, m. Eliza But- 
man; Asa, b. 1793, m. Caroline Barr; Barnard, b. 1795, d. 
1846 ; Deidamia, b. 1797, m. William Johnson, d. 1849 ; 
Charles C, b. 1799, d. ]800; Charles, b. 1802, d. 1846, se. 
43; Francis Perley, b. 1803, d. 1807; Caroline, b. 1805, d. 
1806; Adaline, b. 1807; Sarah, b. 1809. 

Prichard, John, (s. of Paul,) b. Mar. 25, 1766, m. Lovice, 
dau. of Josiah Wilkins, and had a large family, several of 
whom still reside in town. He was a man of large stature 
and great strength. He d. 1843. se. 76. His wife d. in 1850. 
His son Francis P. d. in 1850, ae. 43, an enterprising and suc- 
cessful man, enjoying the confidence of his townsmen as a 
man of good sense and sound judgment. His son William 
now owns and resides on the Judge Champney farm. 

Prichard, Benjamin, (s. of Paul,) b. 1769, was a carpenter, 
built the Saw and Grist Mills on the south road, and then a 
small Cotton Mill; he also built the house on the Mill Village 
road, east of the Campbell house ; removed to Bedford, N. H. 
and there built another Cotton Mill, and finally another in 
Boscawen. He m. Patty Sherwin of Townsend in 1791. — 
Among his ch. were : Alanson, who was drowned at Mason 
Village ; Bernice ; Cyrene ; Dexter. 



428 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Prichard, Stephen, (s. of Paul,) b. 1772, m. Polly, dan. of 
William Start ; lived in the tavern-house on the Village Green, 
where he d. in 1802, se. 30. His widow afterwards married 
Howe, and removed to Camden, Me., where his descend- 
ants still reside. Among his ch. are William Start of Ban- 
gor ; Mary, &c. 

Prichard, Jeremiah, (s. of Jeremiah,) b. 1787; has passed a 
long and active life, mostly in town. After the death of his 
father he resided several years in the family mansion, and 
carried on the Tanyard. He has been much engaged in the 
service of the town as Selectman and in other capacities. He 
was, like his father, uncle and cousin, Commander of the 
Troop. He removed to Concord, N. H., about 1816, and then 
to Boston, and returned to this town about twenty years since. 
He m. Nancy Barr, and has a large and most respectable 
family. Their ch. are: Sarah Elizabeth, m. Rev. Reuben 
Bates, d. 1842; George, emigrated to Illinois; Mary Ann, m. 
Dr. T. H. Cochran; Jeremiah, merchant in Boston, and for- 
merly American Consul in Porto Rico, m. Helen Vila ; Henry, 
resides in Newton ; Charles C. resides in Boston ; William 
W. ; Martha Jane, m. Jackson Burr ; Emily, d. 1847, ae. 29. 



Proctor, Oliver, b. in Chelmsford in 1721. Was here in 
1752. He owned what was afterwards Rev. Mr. Farrar's 
farm (37 N. D.), and his house stood near the site of the 
old Academy, until after the Revolution. The cellar hole is 
still to be seen. He probably left town when he disposed of 
his land to Rev. Mr. Farrar, about 1761. A Benjamin Proc- 
tor, his cousin, was here about the same time, and lived at 
the northeast part of the town, (27 N. D.) 



Pollard, Joseph, came from Westford in 1764, and settled 
on what is known as the Barr farm (64, new laid out). He 
bore the title of Adjutant. He m. Ruth Burge of Westford, 
sister to the wife of Col. Kidder. He d. 1786. Ch. : 

Ruth, b. 1765, was the first wife of Capt. Timothy Fox, d. 
1801; James, b. 1769; Moses, b. 1772; Susannah, b. 1774; 
Sarah, b. 1777, m. David Felt of Temple. 



SAFFORD FAMILY. 429 

Pollard, Benjamin, (brother of Joseph,) came about the 
same time, and built a house near the brook, opposite the 
Hartwell house, now taken down. He had one son, Thomas, 
who removed to Enosburg, Vt., about 18U0, where he was a 
prominent and useful man, and removed to Missouri. A dau. 

MiLLY d. 1777. He d., and his widow m. Whiting, and 

had a dau. Mercy, who lived in the same house many years. 



Safford, Benjamin, a native of Ipswich, was here before 
1754. His farm was next south of the Congregational meet- 
inghouse and the Common. He was often chosen to various 
town offices, and was much esteemed as a kind and pious man. 
He was remarkable for his punctual attendance at church 
for more than fifty years, and used to grope his way up the 
hill after he was almost totally blind. He was singularly 
fond of music, and used sometimes publicly to request the 
singers to repeat some of the good old tunes of that day. About 
1800 an innovation was made by introducing a bass viol into 
meeting, which gave offence to many persons, one of whom 
indignantly asked Mr. S. what he thought of the singing that 
day. "I thought I was in heaven," was the enraptured reply 
of the good old man. He d. 1810, se. 93. His wife Prudence 
d. 1784, 3&. 64. Ch. : 

Hannait, b. 1755 ; Ly^dia, b. 1757; Betsey, b. 1759; Lucy, b. 
1760; Prudence, b. 1763; Benjamin, b. 1764; Reuben, b. 1767. 

Safford, Benjamin, resided on his birthplace till about 1828, 
v/hen he d. while on his way to Illinois, where several of his 
children reside. His wife Hannah d. 1807, se. 45. He then 
m. Lydia Chandler, dau. of Dea. James Chandler. 



Shattuck, William, was here before 1770, and was proba- 
bly the son of Rev. Mr. Shattuck of Pepperell. He is said to 
have been the first man that taught a school in town. His 
farm was near the south burying ground (XL 4.) He was an 
ardent patriot during the Revolution, and seems for several 
years to have had much influence, and was a delegate to the 
Provincial Congress in 1775. He removed to JafFrey about 
1790, where he d. in quite indigent circumstances. His son 



430 FAMILY HISTORY. 

William was a soldier in the Revolution, and was killed by the 
Indians near Crown Point in 1777. His son Peter buried three 
wives in town, one of whom was a daughter of John Breed. 

Shattuck, John, came from Pepperell about 1770 ; m. Betty, 
dau. of Abel Miles, in 1783, and afterwards removed to Ashby, 
where his ch., John, Daniel, Lemuel and Betsey were born. 
He returned here about 1795, and this v/as the birth-place of 
Abel and Rebecca, who d. 1817, ae. 23. He resided on the farm 
now owned by Capt. Willard, (VII. 3.) His wife d. 1798 ; 
he d. 1816, se. 70. His second wife, Mrs. Potter, d. 18.51. 

Shattuck, David, from Mason. Ch. : Francis, m. dau. Col. 
Thomas Heald ; d. 1847, se. 48. Shebuel, d. 1846, se. 51. 



Smith, Abijah, came here from Leominster about 1764. He 
purchased the farm of Benjamin King, north of the village, 
(34 N. D.) He had been a soldier in the French War, and 
commanded a company from this town for a short period 
during the Revolutionary War. He m. Abigail, at Leominster. 
Ch. : Abijah, b. 1765 ; Abigail, b. 1767 ; Cyrus ; Lydia, b. 1770, 
d. 1785; David, b. 1771; Sally, b. 1773; Elijah, b. 1774; 
Rebecca, b. 1776 ; Samuel, b. 1778 ; Betsey, b. 1779 ; Polly, 
b. 1781 ; Jeremiah, b. 1782, d. 1808; Relief, b. 1784; Jesse, 
b. 1785 ; Lydia and Betsey, twins, b. 1786 ; he d. 1786. 

Smith, Abijah, (s. of the above) resided many years on the 
same farm; m. in 1796, Hannah Jones. Ch. : Jeremiah, Jo- 
nas, Charles, and others. His house was destroyed by fire in 
1816. He d. 1825, se. 60. His son, Col. Jeremiah, is a well 
known resident, Charles recently died at Mobile, where two 
other brothers also died. 



Spaulding, Andrew, of Westford, was one of the grantees 
under the Masonian charter, and signed the Covenant at the 
organization of the church, but probably never permanently 
resided here. He owned the farm (XI. 3), and had a house 
near Mr. Reuben Taylor's ; was connected by marriage with 
the Crosby's, and they and his son probably occupied his lots. 



SPAULDING FAMILY. 431 

SpAULniNG, Thomas, (prob. s. of Andrew) was here about 
1760. He settled on the farm near Mill Village, afterwards 
owned by his son Stephen. He m. Rachel Chandler, at West- 
ford. Ch. : Rachel, b. 1761 ; Thomas, b. 1763 ; Stephen, b. 
1766, d. 1826; Lydia, b. 1768 ; Ruth, b. 1769, m. Z. Taylor : 
Lucy, b. 1772. 

Spaulding, James, was among the nnmerous families of the 
name who have resided in town, all of whom were descended 
from Edward Spaulding, who was at Braintree in 1640, and 
removed to Chelmsford, where he d. in 1670. James Spauld- 
ing resided here but a few years, and returned to West ford, 
where he d. about 1790. His s. James, who was b. in West- 
ford 1758, settled on the north side of Watatic, just over the 
Ashburnham line, about 1773. Although without its limits, 
he was always socially connected with this town, where he 
was allowed to pay his minister and school rates, and partici- 
pate in tiiose advantages. For sixty-five years he was a con- 
stant attendant at church. When the alarm of " Concord 
fight" was given, he started immediately for the scene of ac- 
tion, while his wife and eldest son spent the afternoon of that 
day upon the summit of Watatic, where they saw the smoke 
of the burning buildings, and distinctly heard the report of 
the British cannon. His wife Hannah (Barron) d. m 1814 ; 
he afterwards m. the widow of John Wilkins, and resided on 
her estate near the meeting-house. He d. June 8, 1832. Among 
his numerous family was Jonathan, who was b. at Westford 
in 1770; was one of the earliest scholars at our Academy, un- 
der Mr. Hubbard, where he acquired a good education, of 
much use to him and others during his life. He m. Milly, dau. 
of Capt. James Bennett of Ashby, (a Revolutionary patriot,) 
and settled in Lempster, N. H. He possessed an active and 
intelligent mind, and was much engaged in organizing and 
carrying on the affairs of that then new town. He raised and 
commanded a grenadier company there, which was then the 
admiration of the regiment. He removed to this town in 1812, 
and two years afterwards was prostrated by a paralytic shock, 
which he survived but a few years. He d. in Vermont in 



432 FAMILY HISTORY. 

1823, 86. 52. Two of his sons, (Sewall and James,) were vol- 
unteer soldiers from this town in 1812; the latter of whom 
suffered so much from a severe contagious fever, as entirely to 
lose his hearing. But notwithstanding this disability, many 
pages of this work will bear evidence to his persevering love 
of local history. Isaac was another son of James, well known 
in town. 



Spear, William, settled here prior to 1760, a little south of 
the Batchelder tavern. He was one of those that were se- 
verely wounded by the falling of Wilton meeting-house, in 
1773. He d. 1805, aj. 78. Ch. : 

Williabi, b. 1759, d. 1787. Margaret, b. 1762. Hannah, 
b. 1765. Lydia, b. 1768. Mary, b. 1770. Joseph, b. 1775, 
resided on the paternal farm — had five children ; d. suddenly 
in 1818, from drinking cold water. 



Start, William, came here about 1770, and resided on the 
farm first occupied by Jonathan Stevens, and now owned by 
Mark Farrar (26 N. D.) Married Keziah, dau. of Ebenezer 
Bullard. Ch. : 

Sally, d. 1785, se. 13. William, d. 1781. Lucy, d. 1780. 
George, m. Susan Wood of Pepperell. Polly, m. Stephen 
Prichard. Ebenezer. George and Ebenezer removed to Cam- 
den, Me., where their descendants are numerous. He died 
1784. His wife then m. Col. Ezra Towne, 1788, to whose 
house she afterwards removed ; and after his death, m. Jona- 
than Hartshorne, and returned to her former residence. He 
d. 1812, 86. 64, and she removed to Maine. 

Start, George, brother of the preceding, purchased of Jo- 
seph Stevens his farm (35 N. D.) about 1764. He m. Mary, 
dau. of Capt. Moses Tucker. Their ch. were, 

Moses, m. Peggy, dau. of Simeon Gould; removed to Enos- 
bury, Vt. Polly, m. Robert Nicholas, d. 1834, ae. 61. Amos. 
Sally, m. Peter Powers of Hollis, afterwards a blacksmith in 
Temple. Leffy, (Relief) George. John. Most of the ch. 
went to Vermont when young, where it is believed they still 
reside. His wife d. 1812, se. 55. 



STEARNS FAMILY. 



433 




John Stearns, 
(son of Charles,) was one 
the earliest mhabitants 
Billerica, having settled ther 
in 1653. He died in 1669 
ing a son, .Tohn, who was born in 1654, and who held several 
offices, civil and military. He died 1728; his son John, b. 
1686, d. 1776, se. 90. His son Isaac, b. 1722, d. 1808, was a 
member of the Senate of Massachusetts. His son Isaac, b. 
1750, removed to Ashburnham 1777, d. 1807, he was a ser- 
geant in the Revolutionary army. Jesse, his 2d son, b. 1784, 
m. Lucinda Davis in 1811 ; was a school teacher twenty- 
two years. His son, Jesse George Davis, b. 1812, grad. at 
Amherst College 1836, A. M. 1839, tutor two years, studied 
Divinity at Andover, ordained at Billerica 1843. 

Eveline Lucinda, b. 1814, educated at our Academy, m. 
Rev. S, S. Tappan of Boston, 1835, d. at Conway, N. H. 1850. 

JosiAH Milton, b. 1818, grad. at Marshall College, Penn., 
1844, studied Theology at Cincinnati, O. ; settled at Lunen- 
burg, Vt. 1849. 

Isaac Crosby, b. 1820. 

Abigail Mary, b. 1822, educated at our Academy and at 
Mount Holyoke Seminary; m. Rev. Seneca Cummings 1847, 
with whom she went as a missionary to China. 

Lucy Estabrook, b. 1827, educated at Mount Holyoke 
Seminary, and is under appointment with Rev. Charles Hart- 
well of Lincoln, to the same Missionary station. 

John Milton, b. 1829. 
55 



434 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Stevens, Joseph, from Townsend, was probably one of the 
very first settlers, and is supposed to have been here as early 
as 1740, and located on the Supply Wilson farm (35 N, D.) 
In 1743, his intention of marriage to Elizabeth Sawtell is to 
be found on Groton town records, where he is called " of New 
Ipswich." He is said to have been brother to John Stevens, 
who was the first Proprietors' clerk, and who surrveyed and 
made the plot of the township. Joseph Stevens emigrated to 
Maine before 1770. 

Stevens, Ephraim, was here in 1753, for Robert Choate, and 
is supposed to have been a brother to the above. 

Stevens, Jonathan, probably another brother, settled the 
Mark Farrar place (26 N. D.) 



Stone, Isaac, came here from Framingham ; was a saddler ; 
m. Grace Whiting. Had ch. : 

Isaac, Eliza, Rebecca, Mary Ann ; they left town many 
years ago ; but the children, with filial piety, have since erect- 
ed, in the old grave-yard, a marble monument to the memory 
of their mother, a woman of intelligence and true excellence. 



Stratton, Daniel, came in 1769, settled on the hill north of 
Enos Knights. His ch. were 

Sarah, b. 1771, d. 1790 ; Daniel, m. Jane Stickney, and 
lived on the farm after the death of his father ; John ; Asa, d. 
1802, 3B. 25; Dolly; Dolly, 2d.; Lucy; William; Sarah; 
Lydia ; Polly ; several of these died young, — but his descend- 
ants have continued on the old place until recently. He died 
1832, 8B. 89; his wife d. 1825. 



Taylor, Reuben, (s. of Samuel,) was b. at Dunstable ; set- 
tled near the geographical centre of the town (XI. 2). It is 
supposed that he and his brother Amos bought their land 
of Col. Blanchard. They were here about 1757. He d. 1813 
of spotted fever, ae. 11. By his wife Lucy his ch. were, 

Lucy, b. 1762, d. 1789; Reuben, b. 1764; Zebedee, b. 1765; 
Rachel, b. 1767, m. Stephen Brooks; Aaron, b. 1768, d. an 



TAYLOR FAMILY. 435 

infant ; Hannah, b. 1770 ; James, b. 1772 ; William, b. 1781 ; 
Hannah, b. 1784. His wife d. 1814, se. 71. 

Taylor, Thaddeus, (s. of Samuel,) born at Dunstable, was 
here before the incorporation in 1762 ; lived over the moun- 
tains at the southwest corner of the town, (No. 79.) By wife 
Mary (Walton) he had Thaddeus, still living in N. I. ; John, 
m. Sally Jones ; Katy, b. 1777, m. Edmund Jones ; Susannah, 
b. 1779, m. Dea. Jonas Barrett ; Samuel, b. 1781, m. Persis 
Jones, and still lives at Mill Village; Oliver Swain, b. 1784, 
grad. Dart. Coll. 1809, Avas afterwards preceptor of the Acad- 
emy, and now practises medicine in Auburn, N. Y. ; Hepsey, 
b. 1789, m. Benjamin B. Williams. He d. 1825, se. 81. 

Taylor, Zebedee, (s. of Reuben,) lived on the same farm as 
his father ; m. Ruth Spaulding. Ch. : 

George, b. 1797 ; Sophia, b. 1798 ; Asenath, b. 1800 ; Ruth, 
b. 1802; Milly, b. 1804, m. Joseph Brooks; Sophia, b. 1806; 
Reuben, b. 1809 ; Henry, b. 1811 ; Lucy, b. 1816, m. R. Far- 
well. He died 1845, se. 80, and his widow still survives. 
His son Reuben still occupies the homestead. The descend- 
ants are quite numerous. 

Taylor, Amos, (brother of Thaddeus,) from Dunstable, 
was a member of the first church formed in town ; settled on 
the farm next west of his brother Reuben, (XII. 2,) and many 
years occupied by Mr. Buckman. It is believed that he either 
returned to Dunstable before the incorporation of the town, or 
settled in some of the adjoining towns. 



Thomas, Odoardo, b. in Shrewsbury in 1731, m. Hannah 
Morse, 1757. Came here in 1764. Ch. : John, b. 1758 ; Lyd- 
lA, b. 1770 ; Eben'r, b. 1761; Joseph, b. 1763; Solomon, d. 
1769 ; Mary, b. 1765 ; Hannah, b. 1767. Only the three last 
were b. here. He lived in the vicinity of the Crosby family, 
but removed to Maine soon after the Revolution, in which his 
son John served three years. 



Towne, Ezra, was born at Topsfield, April 30th, 1736, and 
was one of three brothers at one birth, children of Benjamin 



436 FAMILY HISTORY. 

and Susannah Towne. He settled in the north-easterly part 
of the town, on what is now known as the Richardson farm 
(23 N. D.) about 1759, and here he lived, pursuing his avo- 
cation as a farmer until 1775, when, at the call of his coun- 
try, he promptly took the field. On the afternoon of the 19th 
of April, being at work in his field, he heard the alarm guns 
fired on the common, immediately hastened to that spot, and 
was soon on his way to the seat of war, with the large num- 
bers furnished by this town, accompanied by his son Ezra, 
then but fifteen years of age. On their arrival at Cambridge, 
having previously been an officer in the militia and possess- 
ing a fine military appearance, he was soon introduced by 
some friends to the Committee of Safety, who proposed at 
once his enlisting a company from among his townsmen and 
their neighbors. He opened his roll on the 23d of April, and 
on that day obtained the names of thirty men, and soon after it 
was increased to sixty-five men, and was subsequently attach- 
ed to Col. Reed's regiment. A few days after, occurred the 
battle of Bunker Hill, in which Capt. Towne and his compa- 
ny nobly did their duty. A part of the company were enlist- 
ed for only four months, but the officers and most of the men 
remained eight months. The next year he again took the 
field, and at the head of a company, part of whom were from 
this town, he went on an expedition to Canada and participa- 
ted in all the hardships of that campaign, until the surrender 
of Burgoyne's army. This probably closed his active service, 
but his opinion on military matters was often solicited during 
the war. He was appointed colonel of the regiment of which 
this town made a part, and in this office remained till his 
death, and was very popular. He was a brave man and a 
fine officer ; his death was accidental and very melancholy : 
On the evening of the 23th of December, a neighbor requested 
of him a little straw ; he entered his barn, mounted the scaf- 
fold, and threw it down ; while sliding down himself, a hay- 
hook entered his abdomen and caused his death in a few 
hours. The hay-hook is still preserved, in the house where 
he lived and died, and a label attached to it tells the melan- 
choly tale. He was buried with military honors on the 31st 
December, 1795, se. 59. 



TUCKER FAMILY. 437 

By his wife Elizabeth he had children, — Ezra, b. 1760 ; 
Reuben, b. 1763; Betty, b. 1765; Elijah, b. 1767. 

His wife died , he married, in 1769, Elizabeth Button. 

Ch. : Nehebiiah, b. 1769; Luther, b. 1772, d. 1775; Rhoda, 
b. 1774, d. 1775; Rhoda, 2d, b. 1776; Mercy, b. 1778; Ra- 
chel, b. 1780 ; Wilder, b. 1781. His wife d. 1787 ; he m. in 
1788, Keziah, widow of Wm. Start. Ch. : Jeremiah, b. 1792. 

His son Ezra was a very respectable ship-master. He 
left two daughters, one of whom Mrs. Isaac Williams, still 
survives. 

Another son, Elijah, resided and died in town^ leaving an 
only child, Ezra, who now resides at Syracuse, N. Y. 



Tucker, Moses, was here probably before 1745. He locat- 
ed on " Town Hill," (II. 1.) The place is now known as the 
Russell Pasture. The house was taken down many years 
since. He is said to have been a very resolute man, and to 
have been an otRcer in some of the French and Indian wars. 
It is supposed that his house was fortified and used for the pro- 
tection of that neighborhood, at the time of the capture of John 
Fitch and family by the Indians, July 6, 1748. The alarm 
was so great that all the inhabitants fled, except Capt. Tuck- 
er, who, for a while, was the sole occupant of the place. After 
the incorporation of the town, he was for several years Town 
Clerk and Selectman. He d. Jan. 6, 1769, se. 66, and was 
then the oldest man in town. There is no record of the births 
of his ch. His son Joseph m. Martha Woolson ; she d. 1773, 
8E. 22. His son Moses lived near Capt. Woolson's (III. 3,) 
and the place, now vacant, is still called the Tucker Orchard. 
He d. 1792, se. 58. Either he or his father owned the farm 
afterwards occupied by Judge Champney. His dau. Susan 
m. Ithamar Wheelock. Mary m. George Start. 



Walker, John, came here in 1760. He resided on a farm 
on the summit of the hills, near Binney Pond, on the Rindge 
Road, (No. 100,) in the S. W. part of the town, which was a 
wilderness, and they traversed by marked trees. He d. April 
25, 1890 86. 75. His dau. Anna m. John Binney, who came 
from Hull, and who afterwards resided on the farm. 



438 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Walker, Jesse, (s. of the above,) resided at the north-west 
part of the town on the Rmdge road, (No. 152.) He early 
enhsted in the Revohitionary Army, and served three years 
and more. He was at tlie evacuation of Ticonderoga, and the 
capture of Burgoyne, and went out once from Fort Herkimer 
in a single company that routed about 500 Indians. He d. 
1832. By his wife Sarah he had Rebecca, b. 1785, m. Jo- 
seph Brown, and Sarah, b. 1786. when she d. 1786. By his 
second wife he had seven children, viz : Nancy, Daniel, d. 
1848, 86. 43, Nabby, John, and three who d. in infancy. 

Walker, Zaccheus, was b. in Andover. Came here soon 
after the Revolution, in which he was engaged throughout the 
war, and served a part of the time in Washington's Life Guard. 
His son Danforth and numerous descendants are now resi- 
dents. In 1790, hem. the widow of Silas Bigelow, and resid- 
ed on her estate, formerly that of Samuel Whittemore. He d. 
1832. 

Walton, Josiah, b. in Reading, 1736, m. Elizabeth, 1759. 
Ch. : Josiah and James, twins, b. at Reading, 1760 ; Rachel, 
b. 1764, m. Josiah Fletcher ; Asa. b. 1767, d. 1784 ; Hepzibah, 
b. 1770, d. 1789 ; Rebecca, b. 1778; Mary, b. 1781. Mrs. W. d. 
1811, 86. 79; he d. 1831 se. 95. Mr. Walton was a man of 
very firm and energetic character, and did more for his coun- 
try than many men of more pretensions. At the age of 19, 
during the old French war, he joined a company that went 
from his native town to Lake George, and was in the severe 
battle that took place Sept. 4, 1755, where he was severely 
wounded, and returned home by water. He came to this 
town in 1763, and settled on the Flat Mountain when that 
part of the town was all a wilderness. At the commencement 
of the Revolution, he was a strong Whig, and did his duty 
through the war. He was a member of Capt. Towne's com- 
pany at the battle of Bunker Hill, where he received a very 
severe wound in the neck, and was with difficulty carried from 
the field by his comrades. He however recovered so as again 
to take the field, and was present at the battle of Bennington. 
To this venerable and persevering man, we are indebted for 
many historical facts that have been of much use in compil- 



WHEELER FAMILY. 439 

ing this work. He kept a journal of his adventures in his 
first campaign, with all the names of the members of his com- 
pany, part of which has been published. After he removed 
to this town, he continued it, and among his chronicles are a 
list of deaths from 1780 to 1820, and of the additions to the 
church, and remarks upon the Aveather and various other 
matters. About 1822 he removed to Temple. Three of his 
children still survive, of whom Josiah is 91, and still active. 



Wheeler, Jonas, a native of Concord, was here in 1758, 
and located in the easterly part of the town, near Hoar Pond. 
He died in 1815, se. 94, and his wife in 1816, 83. 87. He was 
descended from the famous Capt. Wheeler, who commanded 
the Concord horse companyin Philip's war, 1675. 

Wheeler, Seth, (s. of Jonas,) came here with his father 
when about five years old. He served in the war of the Rev- 
olution, as the following copy of an order sent him by the 
N. H. Committee of Safety in 1775, will show : — 

" To Mr, Seth Wheeler, &c., — You are hereby directed to 
enlist ten men as soldiers, and as soon as your men have been 
mustered, your commission as Ensign shall be made out. 
You and said men are to be under the command of Capt. 
John Parker of Litchfield, in Col. James Reed's regiment." 

He lived at first at the east part of the town, on the old 
Ashby road, and afterwards he built the well-known Wheeler 
tavern, on the turnpike where it enters the town. 

The life of Capt. Wheeler was an active and useful one. 
He was a skilful surveyor, and his services in that profession 
much required. He filled the offices of Town Clerk and Se- 
lectman, often both at the same time, for eighteen out of nine- 
teen years, and as a Committee man his services were often 
severely taxed. He possessed a sound and discriminating 
judgment, which enabled him to make estimates as contractor 
on public works, with great accuracy. He built a part of the 
turnpike and many of the roads in town. He Avas a contrac- 
tor for building the Meeting-house in 1811, for which he was 
to receive about $5,400; but by a pretty shrewd agreement 
with the Selectmen, he took the pews for his pay, and cleared 
a handsome profit. 



440 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Among all the conflicting opinions and difiiculties in town 
about the size and location of the Meeting-house, no one ever 
ventured to breathe a word but what the contract to build it 
had been faithfully fulfilled on his part. His whole life was 
a useful one. He d. 1822, ae. 72; his wife d. 1841, se. 87. 

Ch. : Seth, b. 1774; Betsey, b. 1776, m. Dickinson ; 

Persis, b. 1779, m. Isaac Munroe ; Rachel, b. 1781 ; Moses, 
b. 1783, d. in infancy; Stephen, b. 1784; Asenath, b. 1787; 
MiLA, b. 1789 ; Silas, b. 1792 ; Moses, 2d, b. 1795. This nu- 
merous family are mostly settled in Boston, Baltimore, and 
Western New York. Stephen Wheeler, Esq. who m. Hannah 
Stratton, is the only representative of them remaining in town. 
He has often been called upon to serve as Representative to 
the Legislature, Selectman, Delegate to Conventions, &c., &c. 
Silas m. Mary Batchelder, was well educated, and is a leading 
man in western New York. 

Several other families of this name were settlers in town 
within the first fifty years. Among them was John, who d. 
1797, 86. 75. Aaron, d. 1806, ae. 66. William lived near the 
Ashby line, on one of the Emerson farms ; d. 1842, se. 67, 
Samuel lived on the Clary farm (XIV. 1), d. 1839, se. 76. 
Joseph lived on the Kidder farm, adjoining. Richard lived at 
the foot of the hill, near the Poor farm, and afterwards on the 
Burrows place, where he d. 1832, se. 72. Richard, one of his 
descendants, now owns and occupies the Bartlett farm. 



White, Archibald, was a native of Pepperell. He came 
here in 1750, and is named in the Masonian Grant. He was 
in the employ of Col. Kidder, and at first settled near his farm, 
at the place now occupied by John Anderson {55 N. D.), and 
afterwards at the northeast part of the town (15 N. D.) His 
sons, Archibald and Daniel, Avere in Capt. Towne's company 
at the battle of Bunker Hill. Just previous to the Revolution 
he removed to Camden, N. H., where he was again employed 
by Col. Kidder in attending to his interests there. Mr. White 
was an ardent patriot, and it is said that it was mainly 
through his exertions that the name of Camden was changed 
to Washington in 1776, it being the first place on this conti- 



WHITTEMORE FAMILY. 441 

iient that bore tlie name of " the father of his country." Mr. 
W, afterwards removed to Windsor, Vt., where his descend- 
ants reside. He m. at Lunenburg, in 1750, Margaret Mc 
Clary, whose parents were from Ireland. Ch. : 

Mary, b. 1751; Archibald, b. 1753; Daniel, b. 1755; John, 
b. 1758: Samuel, b. 1760: >Susannah, b. 1762. 



Wheelock, Timothy, came here from Shrewsbury in 1768, 
with eight children, all born there. After the death of his wife, 
he returned to his native town, where he again married and 
resided till his death, which occurred in 1812. Three of his 
sons remained here, viz : Ithamar, b. 1761, lived near the Kid- 
der farm, {55 N. D.) m. Susan, dau. of Moses Tucker, had 
no issue. Was a soldier in the Revolution, and was in the re- 
treat from Ticonderoga, at Hubbardston, Saratoga and Still- 
water ; d. 1850 in the Poor House, ae. 89. Timothy, b. 1766, 
lived near the Wheeler Tavern, m. Matilda Cummings, 1790. 
Ch. -ra son and a daughter, both d. young. He d. 1827, ae. 
71, Joel resided here for some time, near the Kidder Moun- 
tain, (51 N. D.) and his wife, and one child d. here ; but is 
believed to have afterward removed to Vermont. 



Whittemore, Samuel, came here before 1760, settled on the 
north side of Whittemore Hill, on the farm now owned by Mr. 
Ramsdell (No. 1 new laid out.) He was a man of great phys- 
ical endurance and industry. It is said " he would work at 
clearing land and rolling logs all day, then light a pine knot, 
shoulder a bag of grain, carry it two miles through the woods 
to mill, and the next morning be at his work as usual." About 
1784, he and his wife became infatuated by some of the disci- 
ples of Ann Lee, the Shaker. Meetings were held at his house, 
and many in the neighborhood became converts, and finally 
he joined the brethren at Harvard. Mr. W.* lost his farm by 

* Although deluded, still I\Ir. W. was honest in his belief, as the following an- 
ecdote will shew : About 1775, he bought of Deacon Appleton a valuable cow, 
agreeing to pay for her when it was convenient to him. Some years after, 
when Continental money became almost worthless, but still by law a legal tender, 
he waited on the Deacon and told hnn he would take up his note, ofi'ering liim the 
amount in bills. The Deacon replied he did not want the money, particularly in 
such a currency, and asked him if he thought h right and honest to pay his debts 

56 



442 FAMILY HISTORY. 

the movement, and returned to town poor. He lived with 
his son, and d. 1812, se. 80 ; his wife OHve d. 1812. Ch. : 

Olive, b. 1755 ; Samuel, b. 1757 ; Sarah, b. 1759, d. 1786 ; 
Sibyl, b. 1701; Jabies, b. 1764; Ruth, b. 1767; Deliverance, 
b. 1771; Lucy, b. 1773; Rebecca, b. 1775 ; Nathan, b. 1778. 

Whittemore, Peletiah, settled on the Wilkins farm, (VI. 3,) 
had ch : Debby, b. 1766 ; Hannah, b. 1768 ; Molly, b. 1775 ; 
Asa Lyman, b. 1777 ; his son Peletiah, was a Lieutenant in 
the Revolutionary Army. He d. 1783, se. 75. 

Whittemore, Samuel, (s. of Samuel) resided upon the farm 
now owned by Mr. Shipley, (No. 12, new laid out.) His ch. : 
Amos, b. 1779 ; Eunice, b. 1783 ; Samuel, b. 1791 ; Sewall, 
b. 1792 ; Marvin, b. 1794; Betsey, b. 1796; he d. 1810, and 
the family left town soon after, but the beautiful hill near 
which they lived, still perpetuates the name. 



Williams, Benjamin, was a native of Concord ; came here 
in 1771, and lived west of the moimtain, near the turnpike 
(No. 151.) He was orderly sergeant of Capt. Towne's com- 
pany at the battle of Bunker Hill, and assisted in carrying 
from the field his neighbor Walton, who was severely wound- 
ed. Mr. W. was Ensign of Capt. Stephen Parker's company, 
which went to Bennington in 1777. He removed with his 
sons to Enosburg, Vt. in 1827, where he died. Ch. : 

Abigail, b. in Concord ; Hepzibah, b. 1772 ; Rhoda, b. 1774 ; 
Melicent, b. 1776, d. 1777; Melicent, b. 1778 ; Lucy, b. 1780; 

Benjamin B., b. 1782, m. 1st, Fox, 2d, Hepsy Taylor — 

lived and removed with his father ; Hannah, b. 1784 ; Eph- 
raim, b. 1786 ; Isaiah, b. 1788 ; Patty, b. 1791. 



Wilson, Supply, b. in Woburn 1750 ; came here 1769, and 
settled in the northeast part of the town ; m. Susannah, the 

in that way. Mr. W. said he did not i<novv certainly, as he had just sold a lamb 
for the same amount he gave for the cow, but he would ask his God what he 
ought to do. About a week afterwards he told Deacon A. that he had laid the 
case before his (lod, and he told him that he must pay as much money for his 
note as would buy as good a cow as the note was given for, which he immedi- 
ately did, saying, " I should like to see any other God who would give a better 
opinion in such a case." 



WILSON FAMILY. 443 

widow of John Cutter, 1777, Ch. : Supply, b. 1778; John, b. 
1780; Susannah, b. 1782, m. Israel Mansfield; Sally, b. 1784, 

m. ■ Edwards ; Samuel, b. 1786 ; Isaac, b. 1783 ; Rachel, 

b. 1790, m. Joseph Wheeler; Rebecca, m. Richard Wheeler; 
Abigail, m. Samuel C. Wheeler ; William Kimball, b. 1795 ; 
Polly, b. 1797, d. 1805. His wife Susannah d. 1815; he m. 
2d, widow Elizabeth Batchelder, who d. 1835, ge. 73, and he 
survived her only a few months, se. 85. On the news of Con- 
cord fight reaching here, he made one of the hundred men 
that hastened to the conflict. He enlisted in Capt. Town's 
company, and was appointed a non-commissioned officer; 
was at the battle of Bunker Hill, and afterwards served in the 
company which went from this town under the command of 
Capt. Abijah Smith. He was esteemed one of the best of citi- 
zens, and an excellent farmer, and by his industry acquired a 
handsome property, having purchased several of the farms 
adjoining the one he first occupied, (32 N. D.) He was for 
many years one of the Selectmen, and was always highly 
esteemed for his sound judgment and peace-making spirit. A 
number of his descendants still reside in town, and are among 
the best citizens and most substantial farmers. 

Wilson, Maj. Supply, (s. of Supply.) has long lived on one 
of the farms acquired by his father, one of the most thrifty 
farmers in town. He m. Sally Scripture, dau. of Oliver S., 
who for many years lived with her. She d. 1837. se. 57. 
They had a large and intelligent family. Among them are, 

Franklin ; Sally, m. Perry ; Susan, m. Kendall, 

and recently Geo. Sanders; Jane C, m. Rev. William Ireland, 
and is now a missionary in South Africa; Sophronia, m. 

Rev. of Jaftrey ; Harriet, m. H. J. Taylor, and 

resides in Iowa ; James, a distinguished teacher, and a man 
of high promise, d. in 1840, se. 20 ; Abby, now a teacher at 
the West. 

Wilson, John, (s. of Supply,) lives on the homestead, and 
has also a large and most respectable family, among whom 
are John Gardner, ; James Addison ; Supply Cutter ; Ann, in. 
Mark Farrar : and Adeline. He m. Miss Holt, 



444 FAMILY HISTORY. 

Wilson, Isaac, (s. of Supply,) after residing for a time on 
the Scripture farm, removed to Temple. He m. Miss Howard. 



WooLsoN, Jonas, was born in Cambridge in 1711 ; he was 
one of the five earliest settlers, and is said to have been here 
in 1739, and to have worked about three summers on his land 
in company with Benjamin Hoar, Jr., returning to Littleton 
during the winter. It is supposed they both removed their 
families here in 1742, soon after his marriage. He is men- 
tioned as one of the resident grantees under the Mason ian 
Charter. His name is often noticed in the Proprietors' and 
Town Records, under both of which he was often appointed 
to important offices. His farm was located on the east side 
of the river on " Town Hill," (IV. 2.) It was occupied by 
him and his descendants for seventy years, and now consti- 
tutes a part of the farm of Mr. James Spaulding, and still pre- 
serves the original bounds as laid out over a hundred years . 
ago. The dwelling-house, after standing nearly a century, 
was taken down the last year. Mr. W. was at the taking 
of Burgoyne, where he lost a valuable horse. This name is 
very rare in this country, and is entirely unknown in Eng- 
land. On good authority it is stated that it is properly Wool- 
aston, which is pronounced there Woolson. Some of Mr. 
W.'s descendants now spell their name Wilson. The follow- 
ing extract from the Townsend Records shows that he was 
among the earliest residents of our town, and was here previ- 
ous to his marriage. 

"June 23, 1742. Mai:ried, by the Rev. Mn Heminway, 
Jonas Woolson of New Ipswich, to Susannah Wallis of 
Townsend." Their Ch. were, 

Elizabeth, b. 1743, d. 1794; Susannah, b. 1745; Martha, 
b. 1751; Jonas, b. 1757. ) 

Capt. Jonas Woolson d. 1790, se. 78 ; his wife d. 1796, ae. 70. 

Woolson, Jonas, (s. of Jonas,) d. 1804. His widow Eliza- 
beth m. William Lock ; his dau. Anna m. Reuben Russell ; 
his son George m. Miss Wallace of Townsend, who d. 1804. 
He was a superior performer on musical instruments, espe- 
cially on the fife. He enlisted in the army in the war of 1812, 



EMERSON FAMILY. 445 

and after one of the battles on the northern frontiers, was 
among the missmg. Nathan hved on Knight's HiU, (R. II. 1.) 



Wright, Simeon, resided on the farm now owned by Mr. 
Jonas Nutting, (98 narrow lot.) 

He was badly wounded at the raising of Wilton meeting- 
house in 1773, one of his ankles being crushed by the falling 
timbers. He recovered ; and about 1786, accidentally wound- 
ed the same ankle with an axe ; he instantly dropped his axe, 
ran a few rods, and fell dead from the great quantity of blood 
that issued from the newly-opened wound. Sarah, his widow, 
d. 179.5. 

Oliver, probably his brother, resided at the southwest part 
of the town. 



Emerson, John, was the son of Dea. Brown E., of South 
Reading, the son of Peter, the son of Joseph, who came from 
England, and was settled the first minister in Mendon, 1669. 
He came to N. I. about 1783, and settled near the present 
school house in Tophet Swamp, (probably No. 147.) His 
ch. John ; William ; Rev. Reuben, now of Reading ; Jacob, 
lived in Ohio ; Rev. Brown, now of Salem ; Phebe and Roma- 
Nus, now of Boston, were b. in Ashby between 1765 and 1782. 

Anna, b. 1785, m. He wins of West Roxbury, and Rev. 

Noah, now of Hollis, b. 1787, were natives of this town. He 
removed to Hancock about 1793, and d. in 1809, se. 71. In 
consequence of having been defrauded, they came to town in 
very humble circumstances ; but by the usual process pursued 
by aspiring New Hampshire boys, viz : farming in summer. 
Academy in autumn, and teaching in winter, three of the sons 
acquired a liberal education, and have reputably pursued the 
profession for which the Emerson race is so wonderfully dis- 
tinguished. " Piety and preaching " might well be the family 
motto. 

Emerson, Thomas, distantly related to the preceding, settled 
on the south margin of the town, on the old Ashby and Rindge 
road, over the side of Watatic mountain. Several descend- 
ants have lived near him, and one lived on the Jesse Walker 
place, on the north Rindge road. 



446 



FAMILY HISTORY. 




Residence of Edward M. Isaacs, Esq. 

Isaacs, Henry, was born at Portsmouth ; came to Mason 
village and engaged in trade about 1S16, and was to some 
extent connected in a manufacturing establishment there. 
About 1822 he removed to this town, commenced trade in the 
store at '-Mechanics' Corner," and subsequently in the brick 
store on the turnpike, where he continued till his death, about 
1846. He was for a time President of the Bank, and was en- 
gaged in various enterprises. He m. Clarissa, dan. of Rev. 
Mr. Whitney of Shirley. Ch. : 1. Henry A. ; 2. Edward 
M. succeeds his father in business ; 3. Charles, d. young. 



Locke, William, (s. of Samuel of Woburn,) resided some 
time at Lancaster, but came here from Rindge, about 1808, 
and purchased the Barr farm; but soon sold it, and resided 
on the estate of his second wife. His first wife was Sarah 
Fowle; 2d, Hannah, widow of Jonas Woolson; she d. 1828, 
SB. 70 ; he d. 1827, se. 78. His son William removed to this 
town, where he now resides ; he m. Eleanor Haynes. his son 
James m. Frances Hallett 1805 ; was a trader here for several 
years, in company with his brother; d. 1818. Nancy, b. 
1789, and Lucretia, b. 1787, reside in N. L 



WILDER FAMILY. 447 

HiLDRETH, Stephen, settled on the farm near Pratt's Pond, 
(XIV. 4,) about 1772. He was a soldier of the Revolution, d. 
1800, 86.58. He was the father of Mr. James Hildreth, who 
d. 1844, 86. 67, highly respected as an upright man. He m. 
Rebecca, dau. Silas Davis. 

Hildreth, Simeon, was an early settler upon the south part 
of the Roger Chandler farm, (XII. 4.) 



Wilder, Peter, came from Boston about 1810, and estab- 
lished a chair manufactory near the northwest corner of the 
town, in connection with his son-in-law, Abijah Wetherbee. 
Ch. : Elizabeth, m. A. Wetherbee ; Joseph ; Thomas ; Peter ; 

d. 1814, 86. 22 ; Andrew ; Louisa, m. Adams ; Nancy, 

m. Smith ; Josiah P. ; John B. ; Calvin, He d. 1846, 

86. 80 ; his wife Tamar d. 1843, se. 80. 

Mr. Wetherbee d. 183-5, se. 54. His only surviving child 
was Ann Elizabeth, wife of Rev. Addison Brown. 



ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

A few additional facts have presented themselves while the vol- 
ume has been in press, of sufficient importance to require insertion. 
Errors have also been detected, a few of which we here correct. 

Page 10, 7 lines from top, for " north 70" 40m. west," read " west 7° 40m. 

nortli." 
" The altitude of the territory and water courses is from two to three 

hundred feet higher than stated. 
" " 4 lines from top, for " 1000" read " 1600." 
" " 6 " " " the stream returns into Sharon, and thence into 

Peterhorough, and joins the Contoocook. 
" 44, 6 line from bottom, for " John " read " Joseph." 
" 104, 7 line from top, for " 410 " read " 110." 
" 119, 14 " " " for "within a certain period," read "for four 

years in succession." 
" 125, 8 line from top, insert George Woolson, Jonas Dutton, Jr., Isaac 

Stone. 
" 132, 31 line from top, insert, the first pauper family was that of Samuel 

Perham, 1762. Phinehas Goodale had been previously sent to 

Townsend. 
" 135, 7 line from top, insert. About 1795 there was a muster on the 

plain near the house of Ebenezer Brown. 
" 140, 12 line from top, for " James Taft " read " Benjamin A. Billings." 



214, 


26 " " ' 


" 


29 " " ' 


215, 


2 " " ' 


" 


3 " " ' 


" 


16 " " ' 



448 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 

Page 165, 6 line from top, insert. In 1756, Capt. Hoar was authorized to re- 
ceive dollars at £4.10s. old tenor, proprietors' money, for pay- 
ment of Mr. Perrey, [Rev. Joseph Perry, probably,] and pay 
said money at £3. 10s. same tenor. 
" 184, 4 line from top, insert the list of Deacons : Ephraim Adams and 
Benjamin Adams, chosen 1762; Isaac Appleton, 1774; Ephraim 

Adams, Jr., ; Noah Bartlett, 1807 ; Nathaniel D. Gould 

and Thomas Wetherbee, 1812; Isaac Adams, 1814; John Clark, 
1819 ; Isaiah Cragin, 1827 ; James Tolman, ; James Da- 
vis, 1831; James Bancroft, . 

189, 5 line from bottom, for " Amos" read " Samuel." 
198, 8 line from top, for " John " read " Jonathan." 

insert Ephraim Adams, Dart. Coll. 1839. 
for "Amherst" read "Marshall." 
insert " Charles " before Stetson, 
for "John" read " Moody." 
insert Dr. Jesse Rice 1774 to 1777. 
216, last line, read " south part of the town." 
219, at top, insert, Ephraim Adams and Richard Hall are missionaries 

at the West. 
243. In reference to the last paragraph, in has now been ascertained, 
that the first company vvas organized in 1754, and that the offi- 
cers were Capt. Benjamin Hoar, Lieut. Reuben Kidder, and 
Ensign Timothy Heald. Reuben Kidder was Captain in 1759 ; 
Jonas Woolson in 1768. Moses Tucker must have been Cap- 
tain before he came to town. 
267. The persons named as Representatives, from 1774 to 1781, were 
Moderators. The names should read in succession — Stephen 
Farrar, William Shattuck, Nathaniel Stone, Paul Prichard, 
Thomas Heald, Ephraim Adams. 
293, 6 line from top, for " Benjamin " read " Isaac." 
335, 5 line from bottom, for " New Hampshire " read " New Ipswich." 
The inscription mentioned in the note on page 11, is 

I R 

1684 

B D H W 



THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



This Jubilee had its ori^yiu at the meeting of three old school- 
mates in Boston, during the summer of 1845. After a mutual 
consultation on the subject, it was agreed, that each one should 
write to some resident of the town, and call their attention to the 
matter. This was done, but without eliciting a single answer. 
The parties had continued to mention the design whenever an op- 
portunity occurred ; and when they again met at the same place, in 
1847, it was found that each had done something to call attention 
towards the occasion. 

In the summer of 1849, one of the three persons visited the town 
to collect some materials toward his family history; and, at his re- 
quest, a few persons assembled together and agreed that they would 
make an effort to have something done in the town, relative to the 
subject, the following spring. Accordingly a meeting of the citi- 
zens was held Feb. 7th, 1850 ; and a Resolution was passed to 
have a Celebration during the summer, as the Centennial Anniver- 
sary of the Masonian Charter of the town. 

The following Committee was appointed to carry the vote into 
effect : 

George Barrett, John Preston, Joseph Barrett, Supply Wilson, Francis 
P. Prichard, Jeremiah Smith, Isaac C. Stearns, William W. Johnson, 
Stephen Thayer, Samuel Lee and Thomas H. Cochran. 

A Corresponding Committee at Boston was also appointed, con- 
sisting of 

Hon. Timothy Farrar, N. D. Gould, Samuel Batchelder, and Frederic 
Kidder. 

To this general Committee the following persons were afterwards 
added, representing the different districts of the town : 

J. W. Bliss, George Fox, James Chandler, Martin xVmes, J. P. Clark, 
Hiram Smith, Charles M. Wheeler, Christopher Whitney, H. W. Brown, 
Stillman Gibson, Walton Brooks, J. P. Wilder, C. H. Goddard, Frederick 
Jones, G. C. Gibson, Sumner Prichard, R. K. Gould, Ai Sherwin, Roby 
Fletcher, H. Bachelder, Richard Wheeler, E. H. Farrar, Nathan San- 
ders, C. H. Obear, Jeremiah Prichard, William Hassall, Orlando Marshall, 
Henry Adams, Asa Prichard, Reuben Taylor, John Wilson, Hosea Eaton, 

57 



450 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

After some correspondence between the Committees, the day for 
the Celebration was agreed upon ; and at a meeting of the Commit- 
tee, May 4th, a vote was passed, requesting Dr. Augustus A. Gould 
of Boston, to deliver the Address on that occasion. 

This vote was communicated to Dr. Gould, through the Corres- 
ponding Committee at Boston, accompanied with an earnest expres- 
sion of the wishes of that Committee, that he would accept the 
appointment. His reply was as follows : 

Boston, May 25, 1850. 

Gentlemen, — Your note, communicating the vote of the Committee of 
Arrangements for the proposed Centennial Celebration at New Ipswich, 
requesting me " to deliver the Address on that occasion," has been received. 

My leisure time is already more than fully occupied by extra-professional 
engagements, and the undertaking is altogether foreign to the quiet and 
secluded ministrations of the physician. It is, therefore, after much hesi- 
tation, and much distrust in my qualifications to do anything like justice to 
myself or the occasion, that I have concluded to comply with the request. 

As the occasion is one of historical interest, a discourse, to be appropri- 
ate, must be based upon historical data. It must, therefore, be a condition 
of my acceptance that you aid me by furnishing the necessary documents. 
I shall want whatever Records exist, from which a history of the town may 
be learned, especially the earliest history, — such as the Town Records, 
Church Records, Academy Records, List of Births and Deaths, &c. 

Relying upon your kindness and co-operation, I have the honor to be. 
Respectfully, yours, Augustus A. Gould. 

To Messrs. Samuel Batchelder, Timothy Farrar, Frederic Kidder, 

Committee of Correspondence. 

On the 23d of June, a letter from the sub-committee was addressed 
to Eugene Batchelder, Esq, of Cambridge, requesting him to pre- 
pare and deliver a Poem on the occasion ; to which he gave a favor- 
able reply. 

The following Officers and Committees were also subsequently 
appointed : 

President — Hon. John Preston. 

Vice Presidents — Samuel Batchelder, Hon. Timothy Farrar, Seth King, 
Supply Wilson, Samuel Greele, Stephen Wheeler, Isaac Spaulding, 
Wm. H. Prentice, Joseph Davis, George Barrett, Frederic Kidder, Silas 
Wheeler, James F. Miller, Joseph Barrett, Stillman Gibson, Nathaniel D. 
Gould, Jonas Chickering, Solomon Brooks, Ephraim H. Farrar, John Elliot. 

Chaplains — Rev. Samuel Lee, Rev. Jonathan Hall, Rev. A. H. House. 

Secretaries — I. C. Stearns, T. H. Cochran, G. C. Gibson. 

Chief Marshal — Jeremiah Prichard. 

Aids — Gilman Brickett, E. M. Isaacs, George Fox. 

Marshals— T. H. Cochran, Matthias S. Wilson, L. W. Wheeler, Henry 
A. Isaacs. 

COMMITTEES. 

Fmance— George Barrett, John Preston, Supply Wilson, J. W. Bliss, 
Jeremiah Smith. 



I 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 451 

Invitations — Jeremiah Smith, T. H. Cochran, E. M. Isaacs, Timothy 
Farrar, Frederic Kidder. 

Tent and Table — F. P. Prichard, Hosea Eaton, R. K. Gould, George 
Fox, Roby Fletcher, J. W. Bliss, Sumner Prichard, Asa Prichard, 
William Hassall, Ai Sherwin, Clark H. Obear. 

Amphitheatre — Stephen Thayer, James A. Weston, M. S. Wilson, Sam- 
uel Lee, Hosea Eaton, Martin Ames. 

Dinner — Jeremiah Prichard, F. P. Prichard, Supply Wilson, Ai Sher- 
win, P. H. Clark. 

Music— Veier H. Clark. 

Reception — E. M. Isaacs, Stephen Thayer, Seth King, George Fox, 
William Hassall, George Sanders, Hosea Eaton. 

Toasts — Samuel Lee, John Preston, E. M. Isaacs, James Spaulding, 
George M. Champney. 

A Committee of twenty-four ladies was appointed by the Chairman to 
decorate the tables. 

The Committee on Invitations issued the following Circular, of 
which more than three hundred copies were forwarded to families 
and individuals. 

New Ipswich, August 1, 1850. 

Dear Sir, — The Inhabitants of this Town propose to celebrate the Cen- 
tennial Anniversary of the reorganization of the place under the New Hamp- 
shire (Masonian) Charter, on Wednesday, the eleventh day of September 
next, by appropriate ceremonies and festivities. They invite the presence 
and co-operation of all, who, from circumstances of Birth, Education, 
Connections, or otherwise, feel an interest in the History of the Town, or 
its former or present Inhabitants, 

We would therefore express the hope, that you will favor us with your 
personal attendance, together with such friends and connections as may find 
it convenient and pleasant to accompany you on the occasion. 

Jeremiah Smith, Thomas H. Cochran, Edward M. Isaacs, 
Timothy Farrar, Frederic Kidder, Committee of Invitation. 

On the morning of the 10th, those from Boston and the vicinity, 
who proposed to join in the Celebration, took the cars to West 
Townsend, and thence were conveyed up the hills, along the old 
turnpike, in carriages. On approaching the eastern limit of the 
town, at the Wheeler tavern, they were met by the Committee of 
Keception, with a cavalcade under the direction of Col. John P. 
Clark. An American flag was hoisted on one carriage, and a ban- 
ner, with an appropriate motto, upon another. As they crossed the 
town line, they were heartily welcomed with " three cheers for 
our friends from abroad ;" and, as they passed over the brow of 
Knights' Hill, in long and triumphal procession, a field-piece on one 
of the hills near the Mountain Mills commenced its welcoming 
peals. Thus they were escorted through the Factory villages to 
the Meeting-house, and thence through the main street to the turn- 
pike, delighted with the recognition of old scenes, new improve- 
ments, and here and there a well-known face. The evening was 
spent in pleasant reunions and reminiscences. 



452 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The morning of the 11th of September, 1850, was as beautiful as 
any one that had preceded it, since the settlement of the town. It 
was ushered in by the ringing- of bells, &c. ; a large national flag 
was suspended in front of the house of Peter H. Clark, and others 
were seen floating from trees and housetops throughout the village. 
The village was soon filled with persons from this and the towns in 
the vicinity. One of the most pleasant features of the morning was 
the frequent meetings of old schoolmates, acquaintances and friends 
that had not met for many long years, and the hearty recognitions 
and hurried inquiries about relatives or remembered friends, many 
of whom are probably not destined to meet again in this world. 

About nine o'clock a procession was formed at Union Hall in the 
following order : — 

Chief Marshal and Aids. 

Band of Music led by P. H. Clark. 

Watatic Lodge of Odd Fellows in regalia, as escort to the procession. 

Committee of Arrangements. 

Orator and Poet. 

Chaplains of the day. 

President and Vice-Presidents. 

Invited Guests and Natives from abroad, headed by their 

Marshal, Jonas Chickering, Esq. 

At the front was borne a banner — inscription : 

OUR BIKTH-PLACE. 

"Where'er we roam, whatever realms we see, 

"Our hearts, untravelled, fondly turn to thee." 

In the rear, Dea. N. D. Gould bore a banner, on which was 

represented the Old Meeting-House, and under it 

" 1770 to 1S16." 

Alumni of the Academy, 

succeeded by the present Students, bearing a banner with 

"New Ipswich Academy, incorporated 1789." 

On the reverse — " Per Augusta ad Augusta. Toil. Hope." 

The Children from the Public Schools ; 

Banner — " A Nation's Hope." 

Citizens of New Ipswich. 

Citizens of the neighboring towns. 

At ten o'clock the procession moved through the street towards 
the meeting-house, receiving constant cheers and welcomes in pass- 
ing. When it arrived opposite the residence of Newton Brooks, it 
turned through his grounds into a field in the rear, and soon reach- 
ed the destined spot. This was a natural amphitheatre, made by 
a recess in the slopes of the two hills, of so striking an appearance 
that one gentleman exclaimed, " It must have been made on pur- 
pose for this occasion." A speaker's stand had been erected at one 
end ; and seats constructed for the multitude, gently rose from 
the centre so as to convene all. After the great congregation was 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 453 

seated, the services commenced by an Invocation from Rev. Seth 
Chandler of Shirley, followed by the reading of select portions of 
the Scriptures by the Rev. Mr. Lee, from a volume of Erasmus' 
Commentaries, printed in 1548, in old black letter. 

The following original Ode, (written for the occasion by Miss 
Isabella Batchelder, now Mrs. James of Philadelphia,) was sung by 
the whole assembly. 

Nor 'neath crumbling arch and column. 

Brothers, do we meet to-day; 
But with nature calm and solemn, 

Rises our Centennial day. 
Near us bends the leafy wildwood, 

Decked with flowers that bloomed of yore, 
While the pillared hills of childhood 

Bound the world for us once more. 

Hoary heads, with honors laden, 

Manhood in the flush of pride, 
Aged matron, blooming maiden. 

Meet together, side by side. 
Home we come, a band long parted, 

Careless of our worldly strife, 
To the spot from which we started 

Onward in the race of life. 

Yet we miss some well-known faces. 

Some kind voices we have loved — 
Broken phalanx — vacant places. 

Only to be filled above. 
But the echo of their actions, 

Sounding down the stream of time. 
Bids forget all sundering factions, 

And as one, harmonious join. 

Prayer by Rev. John Wheeler, President of the University of 
Vermont, followed by an original Hymn by James Spaulding. 

The Orator of the day, Dr. Augustus A. Gould, then rose and 
addressed the large assemblage. He spoke for nearly an hour and 
a half. The introductory and concluding portions were as follow : 

Fellow-Townsmen : — An occasion like this on which w^e have 
met, has never before occurred to any one of us, and in all proba- 
bility, never can occur to any one of us again. The anniversary 
day of our National Independence returns to us ; — great National 
Revolutions often occur ; — our Sabbaths return ; and the returns of 
our birth-day may be threescore and ten ; — but who of us has ever 
seen, or ever will again see a centennial day, corresponding to this ? 
Like the day of our birth and the day of our death, we shall expe- 
rience it but once. It is now somewhat more than one hundred 
years since our ancestors penetrated into the then wilderness, and 
began to clear the region where we are now assembled ; and we 
are met to celebrate that event. Some of us have made our habita- 



454 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

tion here, since the day of our birth ; and in quietude and simpli- 
city, remote from the whirlwind of metropolitan bustle, have been 
content to live in comparative retirement, and to move within a 
very limited sphere. Such have made a wise choice. Others of 
us, more restless and ambitious, have overleaped these mountain 
barriers in search of fame, fortune and happiness in wider fields and 
more exciting scenes. Some have tried the thronged city, with all 
its bustle, magnificence and wickedness ; some have gone to the far 
West, attracted thither by golden visions, which, in most instances, 
proved but visions ; some have crossed the ocean to the mother land, 
and have witnessed the splendor of royalty and perhaps enjoyed the 
smiles of princes : they have visited the scenes which are famous 
in story, and viewed the treasures of nature and art which have re- 
quired centuries for their accumulation ; and some may have even 
encompassed the globe itself. But, during our wanderings, has not 
this valley of our birth, encompassed by hills which shut out the 
prospect beyond, reminded us of the valley of Rasselas — " the hap- 
py valley," in which all the sources of true happiness were con- 
centrated ? and though, like Rasselas, we may have contrived to 
escape from it, and have looked for happiness and contentment in 
the distinctions which wealth, and station, and learning, and success 
confer, have we not, like him, found sorrow and disappointment 
and discontent everywhere ? 

In behalf of all these rovers I wall venture to speak, and to say, 
that no Alps have ever appeared to them so formidable as did once 
the mountains around us ; no river has caused us to forget Souhe- 
gan ; no embosomed Swiss or Scottish lakes have seemed more 
lovely than Pratt's Pond ; no lofty and crumbling cathedral has 
impressed upon us such reverential awe as the old meeting-house 
on the hill ; no institution of learning has excelled the old district 
school, where the twig was first bent, and felt too ; no festival ever 
surpassed in extravagance and in relish, the old thanksgiving dinner ; 
no happiness has been found, far or near, to be compared with that 
at the old country fireside. A friend of mine, a year or two since, 
removed from the city, and built him a pretty residence in a retired 
village some twelve miles distant. He gave for his reason, that he 
wished his children, in after life, to enjoy the associations of child- 
hood, which he regarded as among their most exalted sources of 
subsequent happiness — to have some tree, or rock, or rill, around 
which the memories of childhood might cling. It was a happy 
thought ; it was a good reason. 

In one of my drives in the vicinity of the city I gathered some 
blossoms, and placed them in my room. Some time afterwards the 
cook met me, and with sparkling eyes inquired, — "and where did 
you get those blossoms in your room ? why, they are raal ha'thorn ; 
I have not seen any these six years and a half, since I left Ireland." 
However laughable her enthusiasm might seem, I could not but 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 455 

honor her feelings. The innocent and joyous days of childhood 
were brought before her, and she was for the moment restored 
again to her home and her kindred. 

It is with similar feelings that we come back to-day, to gaze 
on the landscape upon which our eyes first opened — to breathe the 
air and tread the soil, from the elements of which, our very selves 
were made — to do homage at the tombs of our fathers — to look 
once more on the venerable faces of our elders — more especially to 
greet our contemporaries, from whom we separated ten, twenty, 
thirty or more years ago, and who, by tell-tale wrinkles, gray locks 
and shining heads excite our surprise that they should have grown 
so old, while we remain so young. Some we bring with us, — our 
better halfs, who have left father and mother, to cleave unto us ; 
and with them we bring some of the pledges of our union ; doubt- 
ing not that you are as curious to know something of our family- 
matters as we are to know about yours ; and trusting that we shall 
mutually excuse each other for the little pride we may take in the 
presentation. Strangers as they are, may we not promise ourselves 
that, on our account, they will receive a cordial welcome from those 
whose homes are here ? 

Since these things are so, let us celebrate the day with enthusi- 
asm, with becoming solemnities, with rejoicing and good cheer, and 
with social greetings ; and, above all, with devout thankfulness to 
Him in whom we live and move and have our being, for all the 
way in which He has led us ; — for the wonderful results which we 
see around us as the fruits of one hundred years, and for the privi- 
lege granted us of meeting on this festive day. 

Honored as I feel myself to have been, in being called to address 
you on this occasion, I at once selected the theme on which I sup- 
posed the current of thought would this day run ; and shall endea- 
vor, so far as the hour will admit, to satisfy the curiosity which 
must naturally arise, to know what was our origin ; who were the 
men, who came alone and unprotected into the dreary wild, and 
made the first beginnings here ; — what were the steps of their pro- 
gress ; what has been the result, and what have been the principal 
influences in securing it, 

[Here followed the historical sketch of which this volume is an amplification.] 

We have thus touched upon some of the principal incidents in 
the history of our town during this the first century of its settle- 
ment ; and now for a moment let us compare the end with the be- 
ginning. Instead of a howling wilderness, into which the summer 
sun rarely penetrated, we now see smiling fields and waving grain ; 
instead of log cabins, covered with bark, we have ample and com- 
fortable architectural dwellings ; instead of a few paths indicated by 
spotted trees, passable only on foot, or at most mere bridle paths, 
our territory is now threaded in every direction with carriage roads, 



456 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

and every man has his vehicle moreover, for his use and pleasure. 
Instead of the log meeting-house, with the bushes growing up within 
it, we have four or five houses of worship and as many worshipping 
assemblies. Instead of the single schoolmaster, going from place to 
place to teach a few urchins for two or three weeks, we have our 
sixteen common schools with as many teachers, and, above all, our 
noble, time-honored Academy. Many of us remember when there 
were only four or five painted houses in town — when there was 
scarcely a room papered or carpeted — when wooden bowls, plates, 
spoons and platters, or in the better families pewter ones, supplied 
the place of crockery, glass and silver — when square, high-backed, 
flag-bottomed chairs and settles stood where rocking chairs and vel- 
vet sofas now stand ; when six yards of calico were considered an 
ample pattern for a dress, and none but the most extravagant thought 
of seven. But on the contrast we will not dwell ; it presents itself 
to the eye ; and it is but the contrast which prevails throughout our 
happy land. 

And we have done something for the welfare of the wide, wide 
world also. Within the walls of our Academy many men of dis- 
tinction, of every calling, have received their preliminary education. 
From among our citizens, either born here or who passed their early 
years here, we enumerate one President of a college, one Professor 
and one Tutor ; two Members of Congress in other States ; at least 
twenty-six Clergymen, three of whom have devoted themselves to 
Foreio-n, and two to Home Missions, two of them having had the 
honor of founding missions to two Eastern nations, and of first trans- 
lating the New Testament into the language of those nations ; 
moreover, three of the daughters of New Ipswich have become the 
wives of Missionaries to the East. We have had as many as 
twelve lawyers, four of whom have been Judges. Ten or more 
have become Physicians. And we may add, as perhaps exerting a 
more important influence than all, we have furnished numberless 
teachers, who have labored all over our broad land. And all this 
in a population of from twelve to eighteen hundred. 

Would you speak of enterprise in Trade and Manufactures, look 
at our merchant princes in Boston and elsewhere ; look at our Fac- 
tories in town ; look at Waltham and Lowell and Saco, in which 
our townsmen have taken so prominent a part. 

Do you speak of Philanthropy, and ask what has been done for 
the Institutions of Benevolence and Learning ? Look about you, 
and names synonymous with liberality, familiar to you from child- 
hood, will rise spontaneously. Go inquire in the metropolis of 
New England, and you will be pointed to many, whose ancestral 
graves are here. And especially will they point you to him, whose 
business, I should rather say whose pleasure, it has been for many 
years to listen to an incessant round of solicitations from the unfor- 
tunate or the philanthropic. All are heard patiently, so long as time 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 457 

and streng-th will allow ; none are ever rudely repulsed, and few 
ever part from him without kind words and substantial aid. Many 
is the heart he has made glad ; and he is distinguished not 
more for the number and amount of his bestowments than for his 
discrimination in the selection of the objects of his benevolence ; 
and still more, for the cordial and artless manner in which he be- 
stows them. 

No better evidence of the standing in which the sons of New Ips- 
wich are held abroad need be adduced, than the fact that, at the 
recent New Hampshire Festival in Boston, three of the Committee 
of Arrangements and five of the twelve Vice Presidents were New 
Ipswich men ; and it was remarked in my hearing, by a gentleman 
from another town, that probably the sons of New Ipswich had ac- 
cumulated more wealth than the sons of any other town in the 
State of like numbers. And what should give us great pleasure is, 
that they have all been engaged in legitimate trade ; and their 
wealth is the legitimate fruit of productive industry. I have never 
yet heard of the first man among them whose integrity in trade was 
not unimpeachable. 

And though last that we shall mention, not least, we have done 
something for Art. Music especially has received much at our 
hands. A choir was organized here at a very early date ; and our 
citizens have ever been diligent in the cultivation of chaste and 
substantial music, both vocal and instrumental. How many thou- 
sands have received musical instruction from some of our citizens ! 
We look back with pride to the palmy days of the Hubbard Soci- 
ety, as a musical association almost unrivalled at that time, save by 
the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. Time was, and at no 
very distant day either, when a piano forte was a possession to 
which no ordinary citizen could aspire. Thirty years ago, and very 
few ears had been delighted with the sound of even one of the tink- 
ling piano fortes of that day ; and one who could perform upon such 
an instrument was a prodigy indeed. But how is it now ; pianos 
resound on all sides and throughout every nook and corner of the 
land ; and no drawing-room is considered completely furnished with- 
out one. Every little miss expects to be provided with one ; and 
the number of performers is legion. The sweet and soothing influ- 
ences of music are felt in every school and in almost every dwell- 
ing. A great and happy change has been wrought in social life. 
And to whom is this delightful change mainly owing? Is it not 
to one of our own citizens ? Do we not remember him, as he 
quietly plied the saw, the plane, and the lathe near yonder rill. It 
is Chickering ; and it is to his industry, perseverance and good 
taste, that we owe, more than to that of any other individual, this 
great social change. Nearly 11,000 instruments have gone directly 
from his manufactory ; and 1,300 from the establishment of Wil- 
kins, another son of New Ipswich. By his skill and perseverance, 
58 



45 8 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

he has now a world renown, and his instruments are unsurpassed, 
if equalled, in any land. At the same time, it is particularly pleas- 
ing to record, that his personal worth is as universally acknowl- 
edged as his professional merit. He must be regarded as one of 
the great benefactors of his race. We may be proud that we can 
claim him as ours. 

The sister art of Painting, too, is not without a worthy represent- 
ative. Already has the gifted Champney, though scarcely yet 
entered upon the stage of life, given ample proof of superior skill. 
He has designed and executed a gigantic work of great merit. We 
have seen the Rhine, with all its beetling heights crowned with 
lofty castles, — its vineyards, its cities, its palaces, — we have seen 
it flow, as it came from his pencil. May his reward be equal to 
his merits, and his fame be as undying as his Art. 

In short, hoping no offence to our neighbors, for their own repu- 
tation should raise them above jealousy, we feel that we may adopt 
the lines of the little poem, which has been on every school-boy's 
lips, and which of itself is enough to confer lasting renown on New 
Ipswich, lines that are as pertinent now, as on the day when they 
were written, — 

" And where's the town, go far and near. 
That does not find a rival here ? " 

And now, as we separate for a more general participation in the 
festivities of this occasion, let us pause for a moment to indulge in 
one solemn thought. A century has past, and with it have gone 
nearly three generations. Very many of us remember when yonder 
churchyard, the New Burying Ground as we called it, was first 
appropriated to its sacred purpose ; and then it was considered too 
large. Already has the necessity of enlarging it arrived. We re- 
member when the first body was laid there — it was that of my 
nearest neighbor ; — and now the place is filled with graves and 
tombstones. A number equal to all the present inhabitants now 
lies there, and before this century closes as many more will be there. 
A century ! how brief it is ! and yet within it are concentrated for 
us the destinies of countless centuries to come ! 

And may the virtue, the piety, the harmony, the industry and 
enterprize, and intellectual culture which have characterized this 
town for so large a part of the past century, and have secured for 
it such a measure of local prosperity, and contributed so much also 
to the well-being of the community at large, prevail, in still greater 
degree, through the coming century ; so that the satisfaction with 
which those who, at the close of that epoch, shall contemplate the 
past, may far surpass that which we now enjoy. 

After the Orator had closed, the company had a few moments 
recess, and Avere entertained by Music from the Band. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 459 

Then came the Poem by Eugene Batchelder, Esq. of Cambridge. 
This was a very interesting production, and Avell received. It call- 
ed to remembrance many bygone scenes and persons, in a graphic 
and amusing style. It was soon after published, has gone through 
four editions, and has been extensively read and quoted. The 
commencement and close, with a song, casually introduced, were as 
follows : 

How vain the task to paint the thoughts that burn 

When wandering exiles to their homes return ! 

What feelings gush from every opening heart, 

What tears of joy from every eyelid start. 

What smiles rekindle, and what hopes renew. 

As bursts once more our native town in view; 

What joyful welcomes bid the heart to feel 

That kindness here, is not officious zeal, 

But something more — a greeting kind, and warm, 

That gladdens life, and takes your heart by storm. 

This we have felt; a newborn impulse thrills 
Our souls, to think we tread our native hills; 
We view with joy that sacred village spire 
Illumed with light, as glows the east with fire, 
And hear its chimes careering on the breeze 
That still awake ten thousand memories. 
We see the roof where first we drew our breath; 
Yon sacred graves, where rest our sires in death; 
The village play-ground, with its spreading-tree, 
Where oft we roamed in youthful frolics, free; 
The ancient school-house, where, with " shining face," 
We first began fair learning's mighty race. 



SONG. 

How noiseless and swift have a hundred years fled; 

How fast they have circled away, 
Since our fathers first gazed on these hills that we tread 

With such varied emotions to-day. 
O ! say, did they dream, as they shouldered the axe, 

And trod through the forest's dark maze. 
With their rifles, and household gear slung at their backs, 

That we on this fair scene should gaze; 
Did they dream, as the deer started forth from their path. 

And sped through the forest away, — 
While the Indian looketl down from yon hill in his wrath. 

At his hunting-grounds stolen away, — 
That we, on this morning, should all gather here, 

From city — town — valley — and glen, — 
To recite all the deeds, which we now hold so dear. 

Of those glorious Pioneer Men. 



No, they thought not of us; but, to hazard a guess, 
I suspect that they thought vastly more 

Of how they should manage, by skill and address, 
To keep famine and wolves from their door : 



460 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

1 suspect that their thoughts took a practical turn ; 

That they felt there w as work to be done ; 
That their future was bounded by what they could earn, 

'Twixt the sun-rise, and set of the sun; 
That they thought of the friends they had left on the shore. 

So many days journey away — 
Where the bright waters dance, and the loud billows roar. 

In Boston's old time-honored Bay; 
And as fancy reviewed every scene of the past, 

They sighed, if such men ever sigh. 
That though now in the desert their bleak lot was cast. 

They might once see those shores ere they die. 

Farewell, farewell, this day is flying fast, 
Soon 'twill he numbered with the mighty past; 
But often we with pleasure shall look back, 
As o'er life's sea we hold our stormy track. 
To this fair Haven, where we safely lay, 
And moored our barks with pleasere for a day. 
Forgot the tempests of life's troubled main. 
And pressed the hands of welcome friends again; 
Threw off the burden of our daily toil. 
And trod once more our own, our native soil : 
And though to-morrow we may spread our sail. 
And bear away before fair fortune's gale. 
Yet still, some word of kindly greeting here 
Shall linger with us, on our brief career, 
Until we reach that bright and heavenly shore. 
Where storms invade not, and no billows roar; 
O ! there again may we in perfect peace 
IMeet, — where all partings and all sorrows cease. 

After singing Old Hundred, the service ended. 

The procession was re-formed, the gentlemen being joined by 
their wives and families, and marched a short distance to the Pa- 
vilion, which had been erected in front of the Barrett mansion. It 
was 114 feet long and 80 feet wide, covered by sails brought from 
Boston. It contained twelve tables with 1024 plates, with an ele- 
vated platform at each end for the officers and music. The whole 
was handsomely decorated with flowers and evergreens by the Com- 
mittee of ladies. The Dinner was prepared by Messrs. William J. 
Greenman and Daniel G. Murphy. 

After as many as could be seated were received, they were called 
to order by the President. A blessing was invoked by the Rev. 
Ephraim Peabody of Boston, and the company was soon busily 
engaged with knife and fork. After the inner man was satisfied, 
the President opened the subsequent entertainment by the following 
appropriate remarks : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — The position assigned to me on this 
occasion, confers upon me the very pleasant privilege of bidding you 
welcome to our beloved and venerated town. 

Our revered Mother, on this her Centennial birth-day, has called 



' 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 461 

home her absent children to unite Avith those who occupy the home- 
stead, in a tribute of gratitude for the many favors we have receiv- 
ed at her hand. How cheerfully have the loved and absent ones 
responded to the invitation. 

We have with us to-day those who dwell upon the banks of the 
Penobscot. Her sons and daughters have come from the borders 
of the beautiful Ohio ; from beyond the mighty Mississippi ; from 
every State from the line of Victoria's dominions, far — far away to 
the good old North State. Massachusetts has sent us large num- 
bers who have gone out from us to distinguish themselves and the 
place of their birth by the honors which they have acquired in their 
various pursuits. All, all unite with glad hearts and voices in ac- 
knowledging the benefits conferred by, and in asking for God's 
choicest blessings upon our dear native town. 

Her sons and daughters fill and adorn every honorable calling 
and profession. She has sent forth her loved ones to preside over 
some of the most respectable of our colleges and other seats of learn- 
ing. The pulpit acknowledges its indebtedness to her for many a 
worthy and distinguished divine. We have with us those who 
stand in the front rank in the legal profession. Her physicians are 
known across the broad Atlantic, for their scientific attainments. 
Who has not heard of her merchant princes and their unbounded 
munificence ? 

Where shall we find manufacturers more distinguished for their 
skill ? where mechanics in the various departments who excel them ? 
Their names and works are known in every land where harmony 
resides. Her farmers are among the most industrious and respect- 
able. But who shall attempt to eulogize her daughters ? — 

" Come then, expressive Silence, muse their praise." 

Happy Mother of distinguished sons and daughters ! Long, long 
may she continue to give birth to their equals. Long, long may 
the country and the world be blessed by their labors and virtues ! 

But I forbear. I am already transgressing a rule which I was 
about to suggest to others. We have with us many distinguished 
gentlemen — gentlemen to whose eloquence we would gladly listen 
for hours, did the short time which remains to us permit. We 
would hear them all', but to give an opportunity to a few only of 
the many, we must consider brevity not a virtue only, but a necessity. 
Our Clergymen always speak tvell, but never better than when pro- 
nouncing the Ziewe-diction. Our Physicians must practice upon the 
homoeopathic system. Our Lawyers must "file brief statements," 
in conformity with the statutes in such cases made and provided. 
All others must remember that " brevity is the soul of wit," and I 
trust we shall be found abounding in that rare commodity. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I again bid you welcome, i/^rice welcome, 
to the place of our birth, the home of our affections. 



462 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The President then gave the following as the first toast : * 

1. The Day ice celebrate. 

After the reading of this toast, the President remarked that some 
fifty years ago there was a showy muster of the military, in this 
town, and a March was composed, called " Ipswich Muster;" and 
he proposed that it should be revived on this occasion. It was ac- 
cordingly played by the band. 

2. The Orator of the day. — We have hitherto been proud of his name and 
reputation as one of the great lights of the scientific world; he has to-day laid us 
under infinite obligation for his interesting and eloquent Address. 

Dr. Gould replied, that as he had already done so much of the 
speaking, he would not further intrude, though he would have been 
glad to have added much more, which want of time had forced him 
to leave unsaid. After expressing the pleasure he had experienced 
in again meeting many of his fellow townsmen, and the gratitude 
he felt for the attention with which he had been listened to, he 
offered the following sentiment : 

Ipswich People, to whom this town was first granted : an honest, intelligent, 
industrious, frugal, enterprising, pious and patriotic people ; may the excellent 
qualities of the parent stock abound in the scions. 

3. The Poet of the day ; our first Poet Laureate. 

Mr. Batchelder responded : Ladies and Gentlemen, — when I 
arrived here yesterday, I cheered till I cheered myself hoarse ; and 
the efforts of to-day have rendered me much more so. I will, there- 
fore, only remark, that I had considered my native town to be alto- 
gether barren of poetic interest ; that nothing at all of a poetic na- 
ture had ever occurred in its history. But by the assistance of the 
Doctor here, and of that renowned antiquarian, Mr. Kidder, I have 
very happily found myself mistaken. I would propose as a senti- 
ment : 

The Town of JYeiv Ipswich : patriotic and stedfast; so may it ever continue. 

4. The Memory of our departed Ancestors. — When the spirits of the sires 
and the sons shall mingle, may the latter have no cause to lament that they have 
no better sustained the reputation of their good and pious forefathers. 

Hon. Salma Hale, of Keene, replied. Ladies and Gentlemen : 
There is nothing that I have looked upon, in the whole course 
of my life, with so much interest as upon the labors and trials 
of those who have marched forward and been the first to open 
our forests — the feelings they must have had, and the firmness, 
perseverance and energy with which they encountered the difficul- 
ties of a new settlement. These have been the means by which 
our country has been going on in a constant march of improve- 

* Some of the toasts and accompanying remarks, which follow, were necessa- 
rily unspoken, for want of time, though prepared for the occasion. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 463 

merit. And I hope, Gentlemen, that this feeling, which was im- 
planted in the nature of our fathers, will not be entirely extinct in 
the generation that is before us. I look forward to the time when 
the prosperity we witness will be excelled by that which is to come, 
I think that can be acquired by education — not of the mind merely, 
but of the body also. Let us educate the body first, the affections 
next, and let the mind follow, for that is the least important of the 
whole. 
5. Hev. Stephen Farrar, the first Pastor — the memory of the just is blessed. 

Ephraim Hartwell Farrar, Esq. (son of the venerated Pastor,) 
responded. 

It may be expected by some, that I should respond to the senti- 
ment just uttered ; by others, that modesty would induce my silence. 
I fear I may fall short of meeting the expectations of the first, and 
tire the patience of the latter ; but justice to the individual requires 
that I should be faithful, and the subject that I should be plain and 
explicit ; while the time and place remind me that I should be brief. 

In 1760, ten years after their first organization as a town, the 
Rev. Stephen Farrar was settled as a minister over this church and 
people. Mr. Farrar was courteous and familiar with his friends, 
and at times facetious, and would often unbend himself in his own 
family and in the families of his parishioners : yet he was always 
dignified, and never lowered himself in their estimation. As to the 
forbidding aspect, and the awe with which he was approached by 
strangers, to which reference has been made, I can readily assent ; 
though for myself I can say, I never felt any of this dread in his 
presence, when in the way of duty. I have seen it in others, and 
felt it myself, when in the way of transgression. I have seen the 
boy, who, with knife in hand, was marking his neighbor's fence, or 
with pole in hand, was beating his neighbor's orchard, quail under 
the severe rebuke of his penetrating eye, drop his implements and 
retire from the scene of his depredations as fast as possible. This 
awe and distance may not all of it have arisen from any special se- 
verity in the individual ; some of it may be attributed to the reve- 
rence at that day thrown around the sacred office ; and the dress 
peculiar to the minister, the lawyer, and the judge, in those days, 
might have contributed to this result. 

Mr. Farrar was about twenty years old when he commenced 
preaching, and, I have been told, had a very youthful appearance 
for one of that age, and in ascending the pulpit looked like a mere 
boy. This circumstance might have induced him to throw all the 
sternness possible into his countenance, to counteract any want of 
respect his boyish appearance might induce on the younger portion 
of his audience, and to enhance the dignity of his office. However 
this might have been, I will relate an anecdote in confirmation of 
the fact of his youthful appearance. Not long after his settlement, 
he had occasion to journey at a distance, and fell in company with 



564 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

a cler^man who, having learned that he was from New Ipswich, 
began to question him how he liked his minister. He, not being 
very desirous of saying much in his own praise, answered him 
rather coolly. " I am surprised to hear you speak so," said the 
clergyman ; " let me tell you, young man, it does not become you, 
with no beard upon your face, to speak thus lightly of your minis- 
ter : I have been told, that he is a very devoted, talented young 
man." " He is, indeed, very young and inexperienced, and I much 
fear, he will not be able to meet the wants of his church, or the 
raised expectations of his people. I have very humbling views of 
him myself." Indignant at this, the clergyman could forbear no 
longer: " You little young upstart, I'll teach you better manners 
than thus to undervalue your minister." " 0, sir, to show you that 
I have the deepest interest in his welfare, and the best means pos- 
sible of judging of his deficiencies and imperfections, let me tell 
you I am myself the minister of New Ipswich." The minister, 
grasping his hand, said, " Let me assure you, sir, I have greater 
confidence in your usefulness than ever." 

At the close of nearly half a century of ministerial labors among 
this people, I have often heard him express the desire, always with 
submission, that his labors and his life might terminate together, 
which proved to be the fact ; he preached the Sabbath before his 
death. This, to him, I believe, was a happy coincidence. But his 
usefulness did not terminate at his death ; it was very evident that 
he had left the impress of his character, and the evidences of his 
ministerial fidelity upon many a heart in the midst of the commu- 
nity in which he dwelt. And for a long time after his decease, at 
the bare mention of his name, the eye of piety would glisten and 
the tear of penitence be dropped by hundreds of those, who had a 
hope that they had been redeemed, through his instrumentality, 
from spiritual death to newness of life and new obedience. And 
even to this day, the print of his footsteps is not entirely obliterated. 
Ask that aged saint, who worships God leaning upon the top of his 
staff, whence all that ardor of piety and fervency of devotion, in 
which he pours out his soul, morning and evening, as he gathers 
* his family around the domestic altar and commends all his interests 
for time and eternity to the protection of that God in whom is all 
his trust, and to the redeeming blood of that Saviour, from whom 
is all his hope, — and he will tell you, that, under God, he owes it 
all to the faithful labors and exemplary life of the first settled min- 
ister of New Ipswich. And I will venture to predict, that, after 
another hundred years shall have unfolded all their eventful histo- 
ry, and we all of us, who are here congregated, shall have been laid 
in our gravies, and other sons and other daughters from these green 
hill-tops and these verdant valleys shall have come together to cel- 
ebrate another centennial festival, the moral influence of the first 
settled minister in New Ipswich will still be felt. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 465 

And here, Mr. President, before I close, let me pay a tribute of 
respect and drop a tear of gratitude on the grave of those pioneers 
in the cause of truth and righteousness, who were the first members 
of the first church gathered in New Ipswich, and especially to its 
officers, the Adamses, the Appletons and Chandlers, the Aarons 
and Hurs, who stayed up the hands of their minister, and who so 
eminently contributed, with him, to make New Ipswich for good — 
what she was, what she is, and what she may be hereafter. I close 
with this sentiment : — 

Church and State : we want no other union than that of the former, to secure 
the perpetuity of the latter. 

6. JVew Ipswich Academy ; itself poor, but making others rich. 
Dea. Samuel Greele of Boston. Mr. President, Ladies and Gen- 
tlemen : Though I am not a son of New Ipswich according to the 
flesh, I am a son according to the spirit ; for my mind received 
some of its earliest and best impressions here. I am glad to see 
before me men and women of all parties in politics, and of all de- 
nominations in religion. This is as it should be. For we have 
met for no sectarian or political purpose. We have assembled, as 
sons and daughters of pious and virtuous ancestors, to brighten and 
strengthen the chain that binds us together, as brothers and sis- 
ters, in common sympathies and common affections. There is no 
room for party discussion here. 

Few festal occasions are more salutary in their effects, than those 
which commemorate the early settlement of our cities, towns, and 
villages. It is well for us, who repose on downy couches, sit at 
plenteous tables in comfortable dwellings, to recur in imagination to 
the labors and privations of those, to whom we are indebted for our 
present conveniences, comforts and luxuries. It is well for us, 
while worshipping in our sanctuaries, (perhaps I might appropri- 
ately call them chapels of ease,) without any to molest or make us 
afraid, to think of those who repaired to the house of God, armed 
not only with the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, 
and the sword of the spirit, but protected by other weapons than 
those of celestial temperament, — swords, guns and bayonets were 
never forged in heaven, — not because they delighted in war, but 
that they might defend themselves from savage foes. 

Well may the natives of this town look back with honest pride 
on those to whom, under God, they owe their earthly existence. 
Though my knowledge of some of these worthies commenced more 
than half a century ago, my recollection of them is as fresh as 
though I had parted with them but yesterday. 

If departed spirits take cognizance of human affairs, may we not 

indulge the belief, that the fathers are mingling their sympathies 

with those of their sons this day, who seek not so much to garnish 

their sepulchres, as to recall the memory of their persons and their 

59 



466 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

virtues. I am sure the thought, that the spirits of the Farrars, 
of Hartwell, Appleton, Champriey, Barrett, Kidder, Preston, Prich- 
ard, Batchelder, Wilson, and a host of others, together with their 
excellent consorts now in heaven, may be with us at this time, — I 
am sure that this thought will not so much sadden as it will deepen 
and chasten our joys. Truly, giants in intellect and heart lived 
here in days of yore. I trust they have impressed their moral 
image on the present generation. Departed worthies ! may we 
imitate as well as laud your virtues. 

The Academy, which these men established more than sixty 
years ago, (it was the second that was incorporated in this State, 
Exeter being the first,) is a monument of their wisdom, and a proof 
of their interest in the education of their sons and their daughters, 
when learning was comparatively but little appreciated, and when 
such institutions were rare in the land. Many, who afterwards 
became distinguished in church and in state, at the bar, in the 
medical prefession, in the pulpit, and in the councils of the nation, 
were fitted for college at this venerable institution. Others, who 
have been ornaments in the several spheres in which they moved, 
consummated their educution here. 

Boston is largely indebted to this town, and to this seminary, for 
some of her most honored citizens. For want of time, I can name 
but few. The Appletons are as well known in our city for their 
munificence, as -was the Man of Ross in England for his generous 
deeds. To recount their charities would be to transcribe a page 
from almost every philanthropic society in the metropolis of New 
England. As the elder Appleton is not present, I trust I shall not 
be wanting in delicacy to my venerable friend, if I narrate an inter- 
view 1 had with him, after he had met with an accident which de- 
prived him of the support of his nether limbs. On my expressing 
my regret at his misfortune, he replied, " As I have had the use of 
these legs for eighty years, why should I complain that I can use 
them no longer ? " This is philosophy baptized into Christianity. 
If it is not, I must confess that I am ignorant of philosophy and of 
Christianity too. 

Other distinguished citizens of Boston had their origin in this 
town. I will not cause a blush on their manly cheeks, by calling 
them by name. I rejoice at seeing so many alumni of the Acade- 
my and natives of this place now before me. Though their names 
may not be written in the book of Kings, their deeds will be record- 
ed in the first book of Chronicles of the times. 

To revert once more to the Academy, my earliest Alma Mater : 
she has well discharged the office and the duties of a normal school, 
by educating teachers for our primary and district schools. I was 
initiated into the mysteries of my mother tongue by a lady, who 
was educated at this seminary. Bingham's Ladies' Accidence was 
the first English classic which I studied, and " love " was the first 



CENTENNIAL CELEBARATION. 467 

verb which I learned to conjugate. Paradoxical as it may seem, 
though by the aid of this excellent instructress I could conjugate 
the verb to love through all the moods, tenses, numbers and persons, 
I could never yet learn to decline it. Thanks to this kind lady, 
her instructions have sunk so deep into my heart that I always 
have loved, I still do love, and I trust by the blessing of heaven I 
always shall and will love, as long as I live, all good persons and 
good things, my excellent and amiable school-mistress certainly not 
excepted. 

A little more autobiography, and I shall have done in regard to 
myself. During my short academic course, I was favored with the 
instruction of two excellent men, the late Rev. Dr. Worcester of 
Salem, and the late Rev. Mr. Palmer of Townsend. Though their 
temperaments and style of manners were widely different, the one 
being grave, and the other gay, they were, each in his own way, 
good instructors, as well as respectable divines and true-hearted 
men. The former was distinguished in his profession. The solemn 
notes of the one, and the merry tones of the other, are still audible 
to memory's ear. Various are the methods of accomplishing the 
same object. Both frowns and smiles have a beneficent agency in 
the education of the young. We may be reasoned into regret, or 
laughed into shame, for our short-comings in duty. Thanks then to 
those who have made us better scholars and better men, either by 
jokes or reproofs, by smiles or tears. The cheerful Christian can- 
not say to the solemn one, I have no need of thee ; neither can the 
solemn Christian say to the cheerful one, I have no need of thee. 
Both may be equally good pillars in the temple of our Lord. 

I have intimated in my remarks, that many New Ipswich men 
have found pleasant and profitable homes in Boston. I will now 
add, that some of those ladies who are now the pride and the orna^ 
ment of our city parlors and social circles, as well as efficient agents 
in our eleemosynary and benevolent institutions, were born and rear- 
ed in the farm-houses of New England. New Ipswich is well re- 
presented in this goodly society of elect ladies. 

I am happy to say, that the advantage is not on one side only. 
Some of our city-born and city-educated females have exchanged 
the delicate employments of the needle and pencil for the more ac- 
tive labors of the farm-house and the dairy, to the manifest improve- 
ment of their health, and to the increased thrift of their loving lords 
and husbands. Should an opportunity present, I hope some of my 
fair hearers may be induced to exchange their country homes for 
city ones, by accepting such offers as I have alluded to. Should 
any of you, in this way, come to reside in Boston, (I assure you it 
is a glorious place to live in,) I venture to promise you, in the name 
of our city, our protection and blessing. I furthermore engage, we 
will not abandon these our wards, for the gold diggings of Califor- 
nia. We will never go in quest of silver and gold abroad, while 



468 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

such rubies and diamonds demand our care, regard and safe-keep- 
ing at home. 

I cannot close my remarks, before expressing my thanks to the 
committee, to whom we are indebted for the admirable arrange- 
ments of this repast. On festal occasions, which I have attended on 
bygone days, there was always a plenty of gentlemen, an abund- 
ance of alcholic spirits, and of creature comforts, as they are called, 
but a great lack of ladies. The present occasion presents a pleas- 
ing contrast to former times, — no wine or alcoholic spirits crowning 
the table ; but instead thereof, a goodly number of our fair sisters, 
encircling this well-spread festive board. I repeat it, thanks to 
your committee, who have exorcised evil spirits, and introduced 
good ones in their place. I will close with a sentiment : 

The Alumni and present Pupils of the Academy : May they, by their learn- 
ing and piety, prove an honor to their Ahna Mater. 

7. Hon. Timothy Farrar : laden with early honors, adorning a useful and 
eventful life, prolonged beyond that of all his fellows. 

This was responded to by his son, Hon. Timothy Farrar of Bos- 
ton. Mr. President : It is impossible for me to remain unmoved at 
the mention — at any mention, of that venerable name. But, Sir; 
after the extreme kindness and respect with which it has been so 
repeatedly mentioned and received by my fellow townsmen, on this 
occasion, it would be unpardonable in me to occupy the time with 
any remarks of my own. I hope, therefore, to be excused from any 
thing more than the heartfelt expression of my profound gratitude, 
for the great respect that has been manifested here for my ven- 
erable father. 

Col. Reuben Kidder — One hundred years ago he was prominent in the or- 
ganization of this town, of which he was always a distinguished citizen ; while 
yonder Mountain perpetuates his name, his memory will endure. 

To which his grandson, Mr. Frederic Kidder of Boston, replied 
as follows : Mr. President, I thank you for the kind sentiment in 
which you have honored my ancestor. He was truly a prominent 
man in the affairs of this town. Among the first settlers, he did pro- 
bably more than any other one towards forwarding and regulating 
its affairs ; and as the first Magistrate, his decisions and authority 
established law and order for at least twenty miles around. But, 
Sir, the generation that knew him has passed away ; and but little 
that was familiar to their eyes, save the hills and valleys, now re- 
mains. It would be pleasing to take a retrospect of the people and 
times down to the days of our own boyhood ; but the length'ening 
shadows of yonder elms warn me to be brief, and I will close with 
a sentiment : 

The JVcighbors of Col. Kidder, the Appleton and Gould Families — May the 
intimacy and friendship, that have extended through three generations become 
in their descendants as perpetual as your sentiment has made his memory. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 469 

The Legal Profession — Its members from abroad are welcome to our fam- 
ily festivities. 

Gen. James Dana, of Charlestown, also a grandson of Hon. 
Charles Barrett, replied : 

I have been struck, in coming up here to-day, and seeing this 
assembly, with the beauty, advantage and profit of these occasions. 
We ought to esteem it a privilege to live where we can enjoy them. 
There are many of our friends gone to the West, who cannot, for 
many a long year, have these centennials. They are delightful, by 
the family feeling which is cultivated, as is manifest on this occa- 
sion. May that feeling continue to be cherished. You will allow 
me, therefore, Mr. President, in accordance with these remarks, to 
ofTer the following sentiment : 

JVew England — May the time never come, when her sons or her daughters, 
wherever they may be, forget to love her. 

8. Hon. Charles Barrett ; a pioneer in the principal enterprises which have 
given importance to the town. 

This was replied to by Martin Ames, Esq., in behalf of George 
Barrett, Esq., grandson of the person alluded to. After recounting 
some of the enterprises in which he had been engaged, and the of- 
fices he had held, (which may be found in his biographical sketch) 
Mr. A. said, that " in the brightest portion of the brilliant galaxy of 
early settlers in this town, would stand the name of Charles Bar- 
rett. He possessed the elements of character which would have 
rendered him in a high degree an accession to any town. He was 
a man of strong character, and vigorous mind, and was enterprising, 
active and successful in business. In him was verified the proverb, 
" seest thou a man diligent in business ? he shall not stand before 
mean men." He has long since gone to his last reward ; but the 
brilliancy of his deeds and name remain to posterity." 



Letters were read from non-resident natives and invited guests ; 
among others, from President Fillmore,whose ancestors were Old Ips- 
wich people ; from Gov. Dinsmore ; from Hon. Frank Pierce, whose 
lady is one of the Appleton family ; from Hon. Joel Parker, Josiah 
P. Cooke, Esq., of Boston, Hon. Samuel Farrar, of Andover, who 
were prevented by professional engagements from attending. 

Rev. Luther Wright, of Woburn, now 80 years of age, writes : 

I still retain a vivid recollection of the pleasant manner in which I spent a 
part of the years 1790-1, in your celebrated Academy, under the tuition of 
the amiable, learned and beloved Hubbard. Never shall I forget the able 
and faithful ministrations of the reverend and venerable Farrar, nor the pa- 
rental courtesy and kindness of the Hon. Timothy Farrar. The respecta- 



470 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

ble names of the Farrars, Hartwells, Champneys, Prestons, Appletons, &c. 
are very familiar to my recollection. I should love to descant on my remin- 
iscences of New Ipswich, and its highly favored literary institution, but I 
must forbear. 

A letter from Dr. George C. Shattuck, another of the early stu- 
dents at the Academy, was also read. 

Gentlemen — Your kind invitation to participate in the celebration, enti- 
tles you and ihe people of the town lo my grateful acknowledgement. It 
recais incidents of thrilling interest, passed away more than half a century 
ago. In 1798, the fame of the Academy at New Ipswich was at its height. 
A border State felt its influence. The youth from the entire region around 
resorted to it to prepare for the strife of life. Your invited guest, then just 
entered on his teens, was sent by a pious mother to her sister in New Ips- 
wich, to pass a novitiate in the classics at her Academy. About an hundred 
of various ages and sizes and of both sexes, from the full grown man and 
woman downward, had assembled to be taught. David Palmer, the Precep- 
tor, had an encouraging word and smile for every tyro. The untutored as- 
semblage all bent to their tasks, determined to do their best. Of those then 
and there assembled, the counting-room, the bar, the church, and other hum- 
bler yet equally useful callings have exhibited no unworthy specimens of va- 
ried excellence. The genius of the place favored the progress of the youth 
in training to habits of industry and virtue. The citizens of the town were 
venerable for their virtue and example. The pledge to stand by the Consti- 
tntion and support the Union, in the form of the Federal Cockade, the ladies 
placed on the heads of the boys. The " cunning work" was performed by 
the patriotic fair, who have since been mothers in Israel. Time does not 
allow of detail, therefore cannot describe Amos Twitchell, just from the 
mountains, as he conjugated his Greek verbs, on his way from the boarding- 
house 10 the Academy, nor yet how the boys fell when they saw one of their 
number settling on the bed of the Souhegan, where they had gone to bathe, 
until an expert, with friendly hand, had conveyed him to the shore, to re- 
cover breath and a forgotten lesson from his mother. Nor yet can I speak 
of Elisha Hammond at the Exhibition, enacting the part of the King in 
Young's tragedy of the Revenge, where Miss Easterbrook, then just in the 
bloom of womanly perfection looked and acted the Queen, but will apolo- 
gize for my unavoidable absence by offering as a sentiment : 

The Memory of the Early Settlers of JVew Ipsivich, whose stout hearts and 
hard hands covered her "granite hills" with the " sustaining corn," and whose 
piety and patriotism endowed posterity by furnishing halls of instruction where 
their sons were trained to enter the lists with the wise men and "merchant prin- 
ces" of the nation. 

Hon. Levi Woodbury ^vrites : 

Many of the reminiscences of my early life are closely associated with 
the names and virtues of some of your early inhabitants. 

I spent some of the most happy days of my youth within the limits of 
your ancient and honorable town. 

May it long continue to prosper, and long be able to feel proud of the 
talent and worth it has produced in various walks of life ; strengthening, as 
she has been strengthened by, those peculiar institutions and habits of New 
England, which have conferred on her so much glory and power. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 471 

Hon. Amos Kendall writes from Washington : 

Many of the early and most agreeable incidents of a busy life are asso- 
ciated in my memory with the scenery of New Ipswich and the features of 
its inhabitants ; and it would have given me a great, though I doubt not, a 
melancholy pleasure, to mingle in the festivities of your anniversary. The 
scenery which delighted in youth, cannot but please in old age ; but the 
faces which beamed with kindness and love, where are they 1 Buried in 
the grave, or so changed by the hand of time, as scarcely to be recognized. 
Kind remembrances would doubtless smile upon me through the disguise 
which the enemy of all that is beautiful in the human form has put upon the 
faces of kindred and friends ; but how many there are who can smile no 
more ! 

With many thanks for your kindness, and sincere wishes for the pros- 
perity and happiness of the people of New Ipswich, until their hun- 
dredth anniversary shall be a hundred times repeated, I remain. 

Hon. James Wilson of Peterborough, — ■ 

I want to see the sons of New Ipswich assembled in grand Convention. 
I want to hear them talk over old matters. I want the Appletons and Bar- 
retts, and Farrars and Champneys, and Pritchards and Wilsons, and Ad- 
amses, &c. &c., of the old families, to assemble on the soil of their birth, 
and to revive old associations, and give utterance to the reminiscences of 
early life. It would be charming. I know my heart would be moved and 
improved by such a meeting. . . I would respectfully ask you to present 
to your meeting the following sentiment : 

JVew Ipswich Boys — When they go from home in their home-spun garments, 
may they not forget to take with them, and preserve with special care, their 
old, sound, excellent home-spun principles. 

Hon. Charles Stetson, of Bangor, Member of Congress, writes 
from Washington : 

Although removed in early life from the home of my maternal ancestors 
to the State of Maine, I have ever cherished the history of your State ; 
which, in able men and in the manly virtues of its citizens, has no superior. 
My own State, (and which one is not?) is largely indebted to the hardy, 
virtuous and talented emigrants from the Granite State. 

Hon. Marshall P. Wilder of Dorchester : 

There is something in this celebration higher and nobler than the mo- 
mentary pleasures of the eye or taste ; it calls to mind the associations of 
by-gone days, renews the bonds of friendship and social relations, and will 
aiford a most grateful subject for future reflection and satisfaction. 

Although I cannot claim the honor of being a son of the worthy town 
of N. I., yet I doubt not I am much indebted to its Academy for the standing 
I possess, and the happiness that has thus far attended me in life. 

To the town of New Ipswich belongs a high encomium for the early 
aids afforded by this institution to advance the cause of education and human 
improvement ; and, as one who has shared in her bounty, I tender to its citi- 
zens my unfeigned wishes for their prosperity and for the nsefulness of all 
her descendants. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to offer as a sentiment : 



472 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

The JVew Ipswich Academy — A fountain opened for the refreshment of 
souls thirsting after knowledge. Many have drawn of its waters, and thousands 
have dispensed them for the intellectual and moral improvement of mankind. 

The J^on-resident sons of JVew Ipswich : 

Men are the fruits our frozen climes supply; 
And souls are ripened in our northern sky. 

Hon. John Appleton of Bangor, Me., responded : 

An occasion which has assembled friends, united by the ties of a 
common origin, from the cotton-fields and pine plains of the South, 
from the fertile prairies and the populous cities of the West, from 
the land which the sun greets in his rising — ay, and from the isles 
of the ocean, must be one of no usual interest. It is the tie of our 
birth-place which unites and which has brought us hither — not so 
much to consider the present as to commemorate the past. 

It is a day of contrast — the past to be contrasted with the present ; 
and how immense the change. A century ago, this magnificent 
amphitheatre which encloses us, lay in its primeval solitude. A 
century passes away — and now how changed ! The eternal hills, 
the flowing streams and the firmament above, alone remain as they 
were. The mountains and the valley gladden the eye with the 
habitations of civilized man. The idle streams, seized in their 
course by the art of man, have been compelled to become laborious 
and industrious co-workers with him. The path of the wayfarer 
was then indicated by the blazed tree or the broken twig ; now the 
track of the railroad is almost within your borders, and you can al- 
most hear the shrill whistle and the proud step of the iron steed. 

A century ago, home was across the waters of the Atlantic. 
Here were colonies, disunited — powerless — dependent. Now, lands 
then unknown and undiscovered, have become powerful States, and 
have become parts of a great confederacy extending from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific, and whose limits may yet be co-extensive with a 
continent. The flag of the republic, whose growth has transcended 
all history, floats gorgeously above us. 

In looking back upon our past local history, no portion seems so 
full of proud recollections as that of the revolutionary period; and 
so in the nature of things must it have been. The first settlers 
were of the genuine Puritan stock — and of a more glorious lineage 
no man can boast — men hating tyranny in all its forms ; of a stern 
religion, but lovers of civil and religious freedom. They were men 
whom Cromwell would have rejoiced to have enrolled among his 
Ironsides, and who would have followed him in his fiercest charges. 
They were the wheat winnowed from the surrounding chaff" — fit 
seed of empire. Such were the early settlers. And when the cry 
passed from man to man, from town to town, that blood had been 
spilt — each man was at his post, ready for the conflict. The ox 
was left in the furrow, to pass the sound along or to hasten to the 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 473 

scene of action. The settlement was recent, the inhabitants poor ; 
yet you have heard, from the lips of our eloquent orator, how the 
first call found them prompt and unanimous in action ; how no call 
for men found them laggard — no call for money found them irres- 
ponsive ; how this infant settlement sent forth a fiftieth of those 
who commenced the war at Bunker Hill ; and how her means 
were expended, and her soldiers doing battle from the commence- 
ment to the closing scene of the Revolution. 
Mr. President, I give you as a sentiment, 

The Revolutionary Annals of our ancestors: Ever to be held in proud re- 
membrance by their posterity. 

The jyatives of Ipswich, wherever they are located, from the seashore to the 
prairies; e pluribus unum. 

Edward Kidder, Esq. of Wilmington, N. C, replied as follows : 

I am most happy. Sir, to have come here to-day, with all my 
household, and to meet (probably for the last time) so many old 
friends and townsmen. 

Like many other sons of New England now here, I have made 
my home in a distant State, to which I feel strong attachments ; 
yet I can never forget the home of my childhood or the graves of 
my ancestors. I offer. Sir, this sentiment: 

The States of our nativity and the States of our adoption; may they always be 
one — one United States. 



Letters were communicated and portions read from the following 
gentlemen : 

Salem, Sept. 6, 1850. 

I have much reason to be interested in New Ipswich, although I have 
never been in the place, unless it was in my infancy. My father studied at 
the Academy, and was afterwards the Preceptor. In a letter to Dea. Isaac 
Appleton, under date April 26, 1795, a few months before he graduated, he 
refers very affectionately to his residence there, while fitting for College. 

" I cherish," he says, " a grateful remembrance of the kindnesses I have 
experienced at your hands and at your house. I especially remember the 
solicitude you manifested for my success in the pursuit of learning, and the 
interest you appeared to take in whatever concerned my welfare and my use- 
fulness in life. It was under your hospitable roof that I first came to a de- 
termination of prosecuting a classical education. I shall never forget the 
place ; it is dear as that of my nativity. I had almost said, it is the birth- 
place of my mind." 

If I could be present on the 11th, I should be strongly inclined to address 
a few words to the assembly, if an opportunity were afforded, and I do not 
know that I could find any better sentiment to offer, than that which is so 
naturally suggested by the "grateful remembrances" of my revered father 
and which, if formally expressed according to the usage of such occasions, 
might read somewhat as follows ; 

JVl'w Ipswich — The birth-place of many noble sons, and of the minds of 
many renowned fathers. 

Very respectfully yours, Samuel M. Worcester. 

60 



474 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

From Dr. Oliver Swain Taylor, of Auburn, N. Y., a native of 
this town, and formerly Preceptor of the Academy : 

Were pride either allowable or wise, well might the inhabitants of New 
Ipswich be permitted to exult in the retrospect of their history. Could it 
be seen what that little town has done for the neighborhood, for the State, 
and for the Republic ; what she has effected by her Academy ; an influence 
diff'used much farther, an agency operating much wider, than ever was heard 
the sound of her name ; could the labors of all her sons and daughters — 
could their civil and moral influence be justly appreciated — then, and not 
till then, could we estimate the amount of her energies, and the extent of 
good accomplished for herself, for her country, and the world. 

Were it granted me to utter one faint, trembling, dying whisper in the 
ear of your assembly, on the approaching joyful re-union, I would say; 
Friends, brothers, fellow-citizens, let your prayers, your hopes and your 
labors be exerted to equal, nay, to surpass your ancestors ; keep them and 
their example forever in your eye, so that if you do not acquire a world- 
wide fame, nevertheless, by the Divine blessing, you shall be as " the salt of 
the earth," yourselves and your posterity forming the characters and mould- 
ing the destiny of millions, both here and hereafter. 

From Hon. Nathan Appleton, of Boston : 

PiTTSFiELD, 4 Sept. 1850. 

Dear Sir — I duly received yours of the 19th ult., inviting me to attend 
the Centennial Celebration of New Ipswich on the 11th inst. 

I have delayed answering it until now, in the hope that the state of my 
health would enable me to be present on the interesting occasion ; but, al- 
though considerably improved, it will not furnish me this gratification. 

I have never visited the streams and the mountains amidst which I passed 
my boyhood, without the associations connected with the past, which it is 
delightful to cherish, and which lead to thoughts and reflections on the 
changing scenes of life, full of admiration and adoration to the Being who 
rules all these changes for good. 

I should be pleased to renew these reminiscences, to meet the few remain- 
ing associates of my youth, (alas, how few !) to witness the vigor and elas- 
ticity of the generations which have succeeded us, and the joyous hopes of 
the younger branches, to which they must in turn soon give place. 

Hoping the occasion may realize all the satisfaction anticipated by its 
promoters, and furnish a fund for future reflection, 

I remain, gentlemen, with much respect. 

Your very obedient servant, 

N. Appleton. 

From Hon. Samuel Batchelder, of Cambridge : 

Among my regrets in not being able to attend, one of the principal is the 
loss of the opportunity of renewing many of the associations connected with 
the New Ipswich Academy, an institution which, perhaps, like a prophet in 
his own Qountry, fails to excite the interest it justly deserves. 

If we look back to the circumstances connected with its first establishment, 
when there was only one other institution of the kind in the State, and by a 
voluntary association of individuals pledging themselves, not only formally, 
but for each other, to support it for a certain time, itafiijrds a proof of intelli- 
gence and liberality, scarcely to have been expected among a community of 
husbandmen just commencing the cultivation of thejr farms, and at a time 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 475 

wlieii the country had hardly begun to feel the effects of a settled and estab- 
lished government. 

Where so many will be brouglit together, who will look back with inter- 
est to the instructions and benefits they have derived from this institution, 
I cannot but hope that some measures will be taken for its future support, 
and have no doubt that others will join with me in the pro?nisc as well as 
the hope. 

While we have among us a name, which, through the liberality of differ- 
ent members of the family, has been known beyond the limits of our own 
country, we may well expect such aid as circumstances may require, to place 
the New Ipswich Academy on a respectable and permanent foundation. 

I beg leave to conclude with the following sentiment for the table : 

The Founders of the JVew Ipswich Academy — Pioneers in the cause of ed- 
ucation, while they were yet but pioneers in the forest ; may their descend- 
ants maintain the institution in a condition to do honor to the founders and to 
themselves. 

The President then read the following letter from Samuel Ap- 
PLETON of Boston : — 

Gentlemen, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your polite 
note of August 14, inviting me to be present at the Centennial Anniversary 
of the settlement of New Ipswich, to be held September 11th, 1850. 

Please to accept my best thanks for this kind invitation. I perfectly 
approve of the festival, and I doubt not it will be an interesting one. It 
will assemble together many friends, and call up many pleasant reminis- 
cences. Such an occasion is calculated to improve the social and patriotic 
feelings. I sincerely wish success to the anniversary, and I very much re- 
gret my inability to attend, on account of my advanced age (more than four- 
score and four years), and my infirmities. 

The early recollections I have of New Ipswich are very pleasant. My 
boyhood and youth were nearly all passed there, and I look back upon those 
days with much satisfaction. The first settlers of New Ipswich were very 
superior men. Like the Pilgrim Fathers they believed, that the only sure 
foundations of individual and national prosperity were piety and knowledge. 
They acted on the principle themselves, and endeavored to impress it upon 
the minds of their children. 

The founders of New Ipswich Academy in 1789, were a noble company 
of men. Their object in founding the Institution, as expressed in the in- 
strument itself, was to promote piety and virtue, and a knowledge of the 
arts and sciences. They acted in conformity with the principles of the 
early settlers of the town of which they were a part. No one would wish 
to see those principles departed from by their descendants. The zeal they 
had for education was so great, that some of them even mortgaged their 
houses and lands to raise money to educate their sons and daughters. I re- 
collect many of those men well. They are gone, and I sincerely trust are 
now enjoying the rewards promised in the other world to those who endea- 
vor to do their duty. 

For fifty-six years last past, I have not personally known much of New 
Ipswich. I have, however, always felt an interest in its prosperity, and I 
shall continue my best wishes for the well-being of its inhabitants. As a 
sentiment on the present occasion, I send you the following, which I hope 
will meet the approbation of all present : 

The Literary Institutions of New Hampshire in general, and the Academy of 



476 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

New Ipswich in particular ; and to enable that Institution to assume its former 
standing and extend its future usefulness, /, Samuel Jlppletou of Boston, do 
hereby promise to pay, to the Trustees of JVew Ipswich Academy, for the benefit 
of said Academy, Five Thousand Dollars, on demand. 

I ain, Gentlemen, very respectfully, your obedient, most humble servant, 

Samuel Appleton. 

The reading of this letter, which took the audience by surprise, 
created great sensation. The band struck up a merry peal, and the 
tent resounded with applause. It was also responded to by the 
following toast : 

Hon. Samvel Appleton: The successful merchant, the benevolent gentleman, 
to whose ample munificence we are already under the greatest obligations. 

Rev. Mr. Lee rose to this toast, and said : Mr. President — In 
behalf of my colleagues, the Trustees of the New Ipswich Academy, 
I cannot refrain from expressing our profound gratitude for the 
favor we have now received from our distinguished and munificent 
benefactor. 

Dr. A. A. Gould then pledged himself to give to the Academy 
an extensive collection of Shells, Plants, and other objects of Natu- 
ral History, whenever the resident citizens would furnish suitable 
cases for their arrangement and preservation. 

The Reverend Clergy. We of New Ipswich are safe from the rocks and 
shoals in the perilous voyage of life when the helm's a lee. 

To this the Rev. Samuel Lee, Pastor of the Congregational 
Church, responded as follows : 

Mr. President — Although my name is found in the vocabulary of 
the sailor, I have had but little experience of the sea, and must con- 
fess my ignorance, in many particulars, of the import of nautical 
terms. If, however, I rightly interpret the phrase in which you are 
understood to allude to myself, I welcorne it. I will adopt it as a 
motto. It is significant of a naost important part of the work which 
I am attempting to accomplish upon my fellow-men in the name of 
the Master. 

I find mankind, (and our friends of every creed will tolerate the 
utterance, since the text has been put into my hands by the officers 
of the day ; and by the rules of my profession, I must " stick to my 
text,") — I find mankind, under the influence of " the wind and tide" 
of life, going the wrong, though it is the " broad " way — away from 
"the port of safety" — "the haven of rest." And I put the helm 
" a-lee," and I press it down with all my might ; and for the rea- 
son that I would turn men from the error of their ways. And that, 
not by some slight deviation from their former course, but quite 
about, so that their former course shall compare with the present as 
darkness with light. 

And, Mr. President, I am speaking at the close of a century. 
May I be permitted to allude to the clergy of that entire period. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 477 

We have been told by the Orator of the day, that among the earli- 
est arranorements entered into by the inhabitants of this town, was 
one to secure for themselves a Minister. And I am happy to say, 
that, in the true idea of Apostolic succession, there has been, from 
the first, an unbroken line of men who, in the particular indicated 
by the text you have given me, have been like the last in the series 
— the humble incumbent of the present day. They have all put 
the helm a-lee. 

And, Sir, allow me to " magnify mine office." New Ipswich 
has been distinguished for men of excellence, and especially for 
men of great efficiency. Now, Sir, the philosophy of England in 
the days of Charles II. and of New England from 1620 to this glad 
day, is the philosophy of New Ipswich for the last century and for 
the present hour. We connect now and here, as then and there, 
similar antecedents and consequents, as cause and effect. And 
among the causes that have secured to our goodly town such honor 
from the character of her sons, that, decisive above all others, is 
unquestionably the influence of her pulpit ; whose proclamations 
were first from yonder eastern hill, and then from that other over 
against it — the Gerizim and the Ebal of our " inheritance." That 
great and good man, the venerable and now sainted Farrar, and 
Avhose son, worthy of such a sire, has spoken with so much propri- 
ety of his father to-day, has, in my humble opinion, done more than 
any other man — I had almost said, than all others, to secure those 
results upon character of which we are so proud, and I would hope 
not ungrateful, this day. 

Parson Farrar kept the helm a-lee, and his successors have done 
the same. And, let me add, wo to that successor, unworthy as he 
will be of the name, who shall fail to do so. Why, Sir, the father 
of the New Ipswich pulpit would come up from his grave, like the 
ghost of Samuel, and utter in his ear the fearful message, that the 
Lord had departed from him and become his enemy. 

I respond, Sir, with all my heart, to the sentiment proposed : 
" We of New Ipswich are safe from rocks and shoals, in the peril- 
ous voyage of life, while her clergy keep the helm a-Zce." 



Several other letters from those who found it impossible to attend, 
were then presented ; from which the following are extracts : 

Rev. Ebenkzer Newhall, now of Willsboro, N. Y. 

As an humble individual, who received his birth in that place, his early 
traininjT at its schools, his preparatory course at its Academy, and wlio can, 
as doubtless others can, designate and recognize many a stone and many a 
rock, many a vale and many a heipht. the sijjht of which, the rememhrance 
of vthich, the imaginary sisht of which, calls up emotions and sensations of 
inexpressible interest, it would truly gratify me to be present. I should be 
olad to furnish some incidents, connected with some of the early settlers, 
their history, the Church, or the Literary Institutions of the place, which 



478 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

still flourishes ; though I must reproach myself, that I have treasured up so 
few of these incidental facts. 1 should be glad to relate some from the lips 
of my grandmother, relative to the first venerable Pastor, — his family, — his 
visits in the family at that early time, with incidents about his ministry. 
From his hands the writer received baptism. 

I must be excused for alluding to another name, great, and dear to many, 
who outlived a century, a large part of which period he was a resident, in 
active and public life. And though my tribute is a small one, yet his name 
I love to call to mind, of whom I have heard a father speak in terms of un- 
measured respect ; his person I love to call to view, whose words of favor 
and whose signature procured me introduction and attention in the Univer- 
sity. The man, or the youth, who has had the favor of one who outlived a 
century, whose life was a material part of the century, and whose name is 
one of the brightest ornainents of the New Hampshire Bench, may be excus- 
ed for speaking a word. We almost imagine the meridian period of Rev. 
Stephen Farrar and Judge Farrar, and their contemporaries, a sort of golden 
age in morals and religion. 

My desire and hope is, that the moral worth, the goodness, the intelli- 
gence, the unsullied religion of the place of our birth, may be as eminent as 
its advantages. 

Rev. Rodney G. Dknnis, now of Grafton, Mass. 

Although the town of New Ipswich is not the place of my nativity, yet I 
claim to be one of her adoj/led sons. She took me, when quite young, under 
her fostering care, and fitted me at her time-honored Academy, for giving 
instruction in the common school, and ultimately for admission to Bowdoin 
College, under the tuition and presidency of her own native and most wor- 
thy son, the late Rev. Jesse Appleton, D. D. It was beneath the salutary 
influence of her literary and religious institutions, attended, at one time 
particularly, with remarkable displays of the divine power, that I first 
learned, as I humbly trust, to apprehend correctly the gospel of the grace of 
God, and become a participant and teacher of its sublime realities. For 
these reasons, her name and her history will ever be dear to my mind. 

But there is yet another consideration which has ever surrounded her, in 
my estimation, with excellence, and inspired me with veneration for her 
character and desires for her continued prosperity. Jt is the worth of her 
early settlers. They were men of rare intellectual endowments, of ardent 
and consistent piety, and of firm adherence to the principles and cause of 
civil and religious liberty. This was her brightest glory in former times; 
to this, more than any other cause, she owes her steady and brilliant pro- 
gress ; and may it never be diverted, or obscured by counteracting influ- 
ences. I give you the following sentiment ; 

The Pulpit of JVew Ipswich : May it ever be the defence of those fixed and 
eternal principles of religion, for which it was so pure and distinguished in the 
days of a Farrar and a Hall. 

Isaac Spatjlding, Esq., now of Nashua, regretted the necessity 
of being absent, and furnished the following sentiment : 

The Town of JVew Ipswich : Like a wise and virtuous matron, she has "look- 
ed well to the ways of her household," furnished her children with the means of 
moral and mental cultivation, and dismissed them duly (jualified to follow the 
diverging paths of life. May she continue to send forth her Appletons, Barretts, 
Farrars and Adamses to bless the community and do honor to their parentage. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 479 

The ^Prentices of our toion ; they soon became skilful journeymen, and have 
since set up for themselves with success ; we welcome one back to-day, with 
his partner and young Prentices. 

William H. Prentice, Esq. of Boston, grandson of Capt. Hoar, 
replied in some appropriate remarks, and gave as a sentiment, and 
in allusion to the stream on whose banks he was born — 

The Souhegan ; so intimately connected with the fame and prosperity of this 
town, and ever dear in the memory of those who drank its waters and sported on 
its banks in childhoood. 

Elisha L. Hammond, of Northampton, in a letter wherein he al- 
ludes to the sacrifices of blood and treasure which our fathers made 
.in behalf of freedom, gave as a sentiment the injunction of the 
Apostle : 

" Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them ; and them which 
suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body." 

Stephen Fakrar Safford ofTered the following comprehensive 
sentiment. It was furnished by telegraph, and was dated Quincy, 
Illinois, (a distance of two thousand miles,) Sept. 9, (two days pre- 
vious.) It may serve as one of the evidences of improvement upon 
the means of intercommunication " one hundred years ago." 

New Ipswich granite hills, pearly rills, pleasant dells, merry bells; 
Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, blessings on thee all. 

The following most interesting communication was received from 
a large colony who went from New Ipswich as the founders of the 
flourishing town of Denmark, near Fort Madison, in Iowa. 

To the Committee of Arrangements of the 

New Ipswich Centennial Celebration : 

Seeing an invitation in some of the public journals, requesting the em- 
igrants from New Ipswich, now residing in other places, to be present or to 
communicate to you on that occasion ; — those of us who are natives of that 
place, and those of us who had adopted tliat as our home, and emigrated to 
this place and located in and about Denmark, still sympathizing with you 
and feeling an interest in the happiness of those we have left, and trusting 
that the same is reciprocated by you, — have thought proper to respond to 
the call in a brief review of our efforts, and of those influences upon our 
minds which have had a tendency to fix our habits of life and our moral 
principles, and to show the result of those habits and principles practically 
carried out in action. In the spring of 1836, the pioneers of our colony 
came to this place and made the location, and also such arrangements as 
we could make, in the shape of Log Cabins, for our then present teimporal 
comfort, with but four finiilies the first winter, closely stowed in two cab- 
ins. In the summer of 1837, we commenced holding religious meetings on 
the Sabbath in one of our rooins, reading sermons, &c. And from that 
time we had occasional preaching, mostly by these sent out as miesionaries 
by the Hcniie Missionary Society, until the summer of 18.38, when Asa 
Turner, our present pastor, then emplo^'ed as agent for the Western States, 
came and resided with us. In May, 1838, a church was here organized 



480 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

with thirty-two members. In November, 1840, our present pastor, Asa 
Turner, was installed over us. In 1845-6, we built a substantial brick 
church, 63 by 43 feet, at an expense of about $4000, which was dedicated 
to the worship of the triune God in July 1846, the Bell from the cupola of 
which now, regularly, on each returning Sabbath, calls us to the worship of 
God. 

Since the organization of our church, there have been added, at various 
limes, by profession, 98, and by letter 109 members, making in all who 
have been united with us 239 members ; and we have now in regular stand- 
ing 172 — one of the largest, if not the largest congregational church in 
Iowa. And this embraces (with gratitude to the great Head of the Church 
we say it,) almost all of our children and of those connected with us who 
have come to sufficient maturity to fully understand the subject. We have 
also a Sabbath school of 175 members, embracing those of all ages, from 
the gray hair to the child of four or five years. We have, for the last four 
years, supported our own minister, and we pay annually about $150 to the 
Bible, Tract and Missionary cause. We also, in the outset, built a small 
house which we occupied for meetings and for a school-house for primary 
education. 

The four families who first came here laid out the town of Denmark, 
which is three-fourths of a mile square, into town lots for building, and dona- 
ted one-half of those lots to the purposes of Education, and placetl them, by 
a legislative act, in the hands of five trustees, therein named, to be held and 
disposed of by them and their successors in office, and the avails to be secur- 
ed as a permanent fund, the interest of which only to be expended in sus- 
taining a High School or an Academy. This design has been further 
forwarded by erecting, by voluntary subscription, a two-story building of 
dressed stone, 40 by 30 feet, at an expense of about $1500, and a School is 
now in successful operation in the same. About seven-eighths of those 
donated lots have been sold, and the fund from these sales amounts to some 
$1440. 

We have also, within the limitsof the town, two substantial brick school- 
houses, built by a tax levied by law upon taxable property, at a cost of more 
than $1000, with some fifty to sixty scholars each, for primary education. 

We mention these things to show the result of principles carried out. 
We look back to the spirit and principles of the Pilgrim Fathers so strongly 
marked in the first settlers of New Ipswich, for moral and intellectual cul- 
ture, and to those habit^5 of industry and close application of the physical 
powers so well adapted to promote the greatest amount of hap[)iness to man, 
which by example and influence were the very means of forming our char- 
acters and fixing our principles. One very marked trait in the character of 
the first settlers of New Ipswich, was their veneration for the institutions of 
the Bible, and particularly for their minister. 

Our motto is : Our own best good, here and hereafter, and the best good 
of those who shall come after us. And we feel that we have here laid the 
foundation of our motto ; and we trust that the generations who shall heie 
come after us, will reap the advantages of our labors. We feel that 
our temporal and pecuniary interests have not been materially diminished 
by any sacrifices which we have made in carrying out our principles ; — for 
our temporal pros|)erity has been fully equal to our prosperity in other re- 
spects. Of this we cannot particularly speak in this sheet ; but will say 
to all our friends, Come and see. 

The health of our settlement has been unusual. Only two deaths have 
occured, of those who have lived in New Ipswich, in the fourteen years 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 4S1 

which we have been here ; and about thirty deaths in all, in onr settlement, 
of those associated with us — fourteen adults and sixteen or seventeen child- 
ren. In conclusion, we beg leave to present the following sentiment : 

May the Puritan virtues of those, whose deeds we this day celebrate, be ever 
cherished by their descendants, so that promised " njercies " may continue to be 
" shown " unto another third and fourth generation. 

Dated at Denmark, this 26th of August, 1850. 



Timothy Fox, 


m 




Francis Sawyer, 


Mary Fox, 


CJ 


■J 


Lydia Sawyer, 


Lewis Epps, 


■| 


o 


Elbridge Sawyer, 


Lucy Epps, 






Hannah Hornby, 


Curtis Shedd, 




Charles E. Whitmarsh, 


Sophronia Shedd, 


cH 


o 


George Shedd, 


William Brown, 


O 


s 


Oliver Brooks, 


Lucy K. Brown, 


fc, 




Eliza C. F. Brooks, 


Hartwell J. Taylor, 






Flood Wilder, 


Harriet W. Taylor, 






Laura Wilder, 


Daniel Epps, 






Francis Sawyer, Jr,, 


Anna Epps, 






Lucy Sawyer. 



We have appointed Curtis Shedd and J. E- Leeper our Delegates to the 
Centennial Celebration. 

Progress arid Reform; watchwords of the settlers and sons of New Ipswich. 

Rev. John Chandler, of Shirley, in reply to this, gave a some- 
what detailed account of the privations and perseverance of the 
early settlers ; their subsequent enterprises especially in the estab- 
lishment of the Academy and of Cotton Manufactories ; he alluded 
to the baneful effects of the use of ardent spirits, which formerly 
prevailed, and to the success of the Temperance Reform ; he gave 
sketches of some of the citizens and especially of President Apple- 
ton ; and concluded as follows : 

Mr. President — Suffer me to close my remarks by appending to 
them a sentiment involving what I regard the merits of two of the 
most distinguished natives of this tovvn ; one of whom has long 
since ascended to his reward, and the other stands lingering upon 
the shores of time, awaiting, submissively, his summons to depart 
to his place of rest. I will say, 

Rev. Jesse Appleton and Samuel Appleton, Esq. — the divine and the mer- 
chant; the scholar and the philanthropist: — the one has left a monument of his 
greatness in his printed works, the other will leave a monument of his goodness, 
equally durable, in his deeds of benevolence. May succeeding generations hold 
in grateful remembrance their truly moral, social and religious worth. 

The President remarked, that, sixty-three years ago, Nathaniel 
Gould was appointed by the town to " set the psalm ; " and that 
there was direct evidence of there being three generations of his 
adopted children now present, who have been setting psalms and 
making psalm tunes, more or less, ever since ; and we doubt not 
that the father, whose voice we have, most of us, heard before, will 
let us hear it once more. 

61 



482 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

Dea. Nathaniel D. Gould replied, that he was by far more used 
to sing than to speak in public, and should have been very willing 
to present himself in that way on this occasion. After recapitulat- 
ing many of his reminiscences of sixty years ago, when the minis- 
ter and deacons and some others wore wigs and cocked hats, and 
when it was still the practice for the deacon in front of the pulpit 
to " line the psalm," which was then sung with a power and quaver 
of the voice which still rung in his ears ; he gave a sketch of the 
attention which had at different times been paid to music in town, 
which has been embodied in the preceding history. He concluded 
with a sentiment nearly in the words of one of the patriarchs of 
the town [Dea. E. Adams] : — 

Music : If David with a single instrument could cause the Evil Spirit to de- 
part from Saul, may we not ascribe to the influence of good music much of the 
social harmony that has prevailed in town during so large a part of the past cen- 
tury; and confidently hope that the excellent music of to-day may banish every 
evil spirit from the present and coming generation. 



Our Great Grandfathers: Would that their virtues might be as readily and 
successfully assumed by the present generation as their costumes have been. 

Mr. George M, Champney, in behalf of several persons here al- 
luded to, replied : — 

As the sentiment just offered is supposed to refer to the persons 
who have for this occasion assumed the garb worn by our ancestors 
a century since, they would respond to it, by apologizing for 
undertaking to represent a class so worthy and dignified as those 
" gentlemen of the old school." They did not expect to wear the 
mantle, nor even to fill the shoes of those honored men, whose 
knee-buckles they are not " worthy to unloose." But in the exer- 
cise of a truant disposition, they thought it might not be unaccept- 
able to the young persons present at this gathering, to look upon 
the costumes of the days we are commemorating, and to bring be- 
fore the elderly ones associations of the past, which must linger 
pleasantly in their meinories. If they have in any degree added to 
the variety or interest of this happy occasion, they will esteem it 
as an undeserved honor. For had they been treated as they 
strongly suspect might have been their deserts, at their presumption 
in imitating our venerated grandsires, they would probably have 
shared the fate of the daw, who arrayed herself in " borrowed 
feathers." 

Mr. Chairman — I think your memory must extend to the verge of 
that period known as the days of the " cocked-up hat and cane." 
And they doubtless seem to you as palmy days, that never will or 
can return. You cannot now see such gentlemen as then walked 
these streets, under the protection of a wig and cane, and of a dig- 
nity that awed into distance and respectful obedience the wildest 



CENTENNIAL CELEBARATION. 483 

larchins in their play. What are our town meetings and their mo- 
derators, our selectmen, deacons and tything-men, to those who 
filled these offices then ! What are our captains and colonels to the 
military heroes that headed the " train-bands " on the common or 
the muster field in those days ! Alas, " we ne'er shall look upon 
their like again." The " counterfeit presentments " now before 
you must painfully remind of a glory that is departed. To cut 
short, however, these sad recollections, I will resume my seat, and 
hand you the following sentiment : 

The Spirit that animated our Fathers ; may it not depart with the costume 
to which they gave historic dignity. 

The JVavy and its gallant Officers ; few of them are likely to be twice 
caught in the same trap. 

The President remarked, that this seemed to be a doubled-headed 
matrimonial shot, intended to hit a certain Greene, who yet was 
not so green but that he was shrewd enough to select his partner 
from New Ipswich ; and also a certain Miller, who, like some millers 
of old, had taken toll twice from the same grist. 

Lieut. James F. Miller, whose matrimonial alliance was alluded 
to, rose and said, that the Navy needed no defence or praise from 
him ; it had spoken for itself, whenever or wherever the country 
demanded. He spoke particularly of the unparalleled achievement 
of Com. Connor, seconded by every heart and hand in his squad- 
ron, in landing, under the guns of Vera Cruz, an army of 12,000 
men, with horses, ammunition and baggao^e, in six hours, without 
the loss of a man or a horse. 

In reference. Sir, to that part of the sentiment alluding specially 
to myself, I am happy to say that I am not " solitary and alone " in 
its application ; and I am not so " greene " as to be responsible for 
the whole, and I trust you are not so green as to allow gentle- 
men to accept the good things of the day without acknowledgment. 
[The President asked pardon for his verdancy.] 

Turning, Sir, from subjects of a personal and professional bear- 
ing — I think. Sir, this great gathering of old faces, this meeting of 
old friends upon our old play-grounds, must cause a thrill of hap- 
piness and pleasure in our bosoms to-day, which we have seldom 
experienced through the course of life. I confess I feel it to no 
small extent. It was remarked by the Orator of the day, that of 
twelve Vice Presidents at the late New Hampshire Festival, this 
little town of hill and valley, with scarcely a smooth acre upon its 
surface, contributed five of them,^ each one of them prominent, and 
some of them pre-eminent in different lines of business or profes- 
sion, and each esteemed and admired in all the public and domestic 

* Samuel and Nathan Appleton, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Batchelder, and 
Jonas Chickering. 



484 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

relations of life. And, Sir, that pride may well be a little flushed 
to-day, after having listened to the eloquence and poetry of two 
others of her sons, the fame of one of whom is not, and the other's 
will not be, bounded by the limits of town, state, or country, how- 
ever expanded, in which they were born. 

Some allusion having been made to " Peterborough folks," Mr. 
F. Kidder, after recounting the fact that, during the Revolution, 
companies were formed of men from that town and this, to do ser- 
vice in the war, offered the following : 

The towns of Peterborous;h and A'ew Ipswich, jointly represented in one com- 
pany on the glorious battle-fields of Bunker Hill and Bennington; may they never 
be divided in any good word or work. 

Hon. Timothy Farrar read a paper in reference to the satirical 
Poem, and its author, referred to in the preceding history, p. 183, 
of which the following is an abstract : — 

Among all who have hitherto vied with each other in doing honor 
to our ancestors and predecessors, I regret to observe that no one 
has risen to do justice to our ancient, learned and illustrious fellow- 
townsman, his Honor Isaac Iambic. For the apathy that has thus 
far been manifested towards him, I am constrained to fear, that 
many now present may be ignorant of his important life, character, 
and works. Lest this should be the case, I would mention that the 
old gentleman flourished about the beginning of the present centu- 
ry. His lineage and early history, like that of the town, is involved 
in great obscurity. There is no doubt that, like many other very 
great men, he was a native of this town, with whose fame and his- 
tory he has identified his name. That he was educated at your 
principal literary Institution may be safely inferred from some pas- 
sages in his works ; and that he was a member of that venerable 
assemblage, the Demosthenian Society, he all but directly asserts. 
That he was on terms of familiarity with many highly respectable 
citizens is quite evident from the freedom with which he introduces 
their names and conduct. His great work was completed and pub- 
lished at the end of the first year of this century. It was a regularly 
built Epic Poem, having a Dedication, Argument, Text and Notes, 
all in due form ; and may be considered, by way of eminence, the 
Epic. He assumed jurisdiction over the follies of the town, and 
lashed them to his heart's content. He was particularly severe on 
the matters of the Turnpike and the Singing Schools ; on the latter 
subject he was absolutely unmerciful, because the town would not 
vote money to pay for teaching music. It is obvious, from his ex- 
treme sensitiveness on the subject, that he was a great viusician, 
or at least a great mvsical amateur. 

In one passage of his great Epic, he speaks of the " store upon 
the height," a well-known locality to the people of that generation, 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 485 

and of things said and done there, in a manner to show that he was 
a frequent visitor. If our friend in Cambridge, who occupied the 
store in those days, could be induced to state his recollections of 
the old gentleman, he would doubtless amuse the assembly with 
many interesting anecdotes in regard to his manners and habits, 
albeit, from their strong attachment for each other, he would have 
done it with great personal kindness and respect, though it is 
not to be disguised that Isaac spoke of him in disparaging 
terms. Had our friend in Cambridge been capable of harboring 
malice, there might have been some reason to suspect him of foul 
play, on account of the gross and unfounded attack made on him in 
the Poem. That he was in some way knowing to the cause of 
Isaac's disappearance, I am reluctantly compelled to admit there is 
too much reason to believe. But I beg you to consider that he is 
absent, and unable to answer for himself. The melancholy truth 
undoubtedly is, that Isaac Iambic actually died, by force, violence, 
fraud, or otherwise, in the course of the year 1S02. I give you 

The immortal Memory of His Honor Isaac Iambic. His own works are his 
best eulogy. 

The adopted Sons of JVew Ipswich. 

Dr. Thomas H. Cochran rose, and replied to this toast. 

Several volunteer toasts were given, and songs were known to be 
in readiness by N. D. Gould, James Spaulding, George M. Champ- 
ney, and William D. Lock ; but the coming darkness brought the 
exercises to a close just as every man had become eager for toast- 
giving and speech-making. 

On motion, it was voted that the thanks of the assembly be pre- 
sented to the Orator and Poet of the day, and that copies of the 
Address and Poem be requested for the Press. 

Voted, That the President of the day be requested to nominate 
a Publishing Committee, and notify them of the same. 

Voted, That a Committee of five be chosen to solicit subscriptions 
from non-resident natives and alumni, to form a permanent fund in 
aid of the New Ipswich Academy ; and, on nomination, the foUow- 
persons were chosen : Hon. Samuel Batchelder, Hon. Timothy 
Farrar, Jonas Chickering, Esq., Dr. A. A. Gould, and Frederic 
Kidder, Esq. 

On motion of Mr. F. Kidder, it was voted that it is the sense of 
this meeting that a centennial meeting be held during the year 
1860, in commemoration of the organization of the first church, and 
the settlement of the first pastor. 

Voted, That the members of the General Committee for this oc- 
casion be a Standing Committee, to take such measures at that 
time as may be requisite to effect the object. 



486 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



HYMN. 

BY JAMES SPAULDING. 
Sung at the close of the Services. 

God of our fathers, Thou didst bless 
Them in the dreary wilderness; 
To Thee this day, we joyful raise 
A hymn of Gratitude and Praise. 

When perils dark beset them there, 
Our fathers trusted in Thy care; 
From dangers they deliverance found; 
Thy loving kindness hedged them round. 

Through feeble age Thy guiding hand 
Their faltering footsteps did attend. 
Was their support, their hope and stay 
When life was waning fast away. 

To Thee, O God, their children now. 
This day before Thee humbly bow; 
As Thou our fathers deigned to hear. 
Wilt Thou to us incline Thine ear. 

To Thy protecting power we owe 
All that we have, or are, or know; 
To Thee this day we joyful raise 
This hymn of Gratitude and Praise. 



-#- 



SONG. 

BY GEORGE M. CHAMPNEY. 

In the good old days, those honest days. 

One hundred years ago. 
Our fathers from old Ipswich came. 

This land to reap and sow. 
They found a rough and sterile soil. 

With forests overlaid. 
And hills, that to their reverent eyes 

Sublimest scenes displayed. 
They cleared the way, their houses built-. 

Nor feared the savage foe, 
For our fathers were a hardy race. 

One hundred years ago. 



But you've been told of those rough days 

In which our sires were schooled. 
By him who was our orator. 

The learned Doctor Gould; 
His page is glowing bright with names 

That ne'er shall be forgot ; 
Their memory shall dwell around 

This consecrated spot. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



487 



Those names we'll sing, as best we may, 

In harmony's rich flow ; 
For our fathers were a worthy race 

One hundred years ago. 

'Tvvas Foster, who, with wife and child. 

Dwelt first amid these hills. 
Braving, with sturdy arm and heart. 

The early settlers' ills. 
Then Hoar and Tucker followed on. 

With axe, and plough, and spade; 
And Appleton, with pious zeal. 

Soon lent his powerful aid; 
For learning and for virtue's cause, 

His sons their wealth bestow, 
And bear a name more honored now 

Than a hundred years ago. 

And now come Builard, Bates, and How, 

To swell the little band; 
The Adamses and VVoolsons too, 

Seek out the forest land. 
Nor Whittemore shall be forgot 

While stands that lofly hill; 
While Fletcher's patriot deeds shall live 

While waters turn the mill. 
We'll sing of Chandler, Stevens, Brown, 

And Barrett, who, you know, 
Stood high among the race that lived 

One hundred years ago. 

The village smiles, the fields are green, 

The church surmounts the hill. 
The school-house rears its modest front 

The eager mind to fill. 
Industry's busy hum is heard, 

The cattle browse the plain, 
The brooklet turns the mammoth wheel 

To grind the ripened grain. 
And Knowlton, IJavis, Wilson, Breed, 

Their ready aid bestow 
To make this scene of fair content 

One hundred years ago. 

Safford and Taylor, King and White, 

Were men of solid worth; 
And Preston's skill with lance and pill 

Gave hope to many a hearth. 
Prichard and Heald, and Wheeler too. 

Our praises well may claim. 
Whose judgments ripe and honest thrift 

■Might gild the huniblest name. 
Our dames, in search of goods and wares 

For substance or for show, 
To Rogers, Hills, or Hartwells went 

One hundred years ago. 



488 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 

We'll gather yet, from out the list, 

Some names of bright renown. 
See Kidder, like thut mountain, stand 

Among the men in town. 
The pulpit and the bench both claim 

The Farrars as their own, 
Whose lives of purity and faith 

Bright on their altars shone. 
When knotty points our fathers found, 

And legal lore would know, 
Champney the law expounded well 

One hundred years ago. 

When music's silvery voice is heard. 

When flows the graceful pen. 
The Goulds in memory's cells are stirred 

And move our hearts again. 
In Chickering we're proud to trace 

Skill for the Art divine. 
Whose triumphs now have won a fame 

These hills can ne'er confine. 
We've nurtured too, beside our streams, 

A Batchelder, you know. 
Although we had no cotton mills 

A hundred years ago. 

Still might we cull names fair and good, 

From those who cast their lot 
Among these scenes so wild and rude — 

But, they'll not be forgot. 
Their virtues and their deeds have swelled 

The stream that here has flown. 
Bearing to us those blessings dear 

We fondly call our own; 
And since to those we owe so much. 

Who here good seed did sow. 
We'll pledge to all that noble band 

Of a hundred years ago. 

In the evening, the spacious mansion of George Barrett, Esq. 
was thrown open, and many hundreds of the sons and daughters of 
New Ipswich, resident and non-resident, met for social intercourse. 
Such as chose music or the merrj'' dance, or to sit down and recount 
the events of " auld lang syne," all had free and ample opportunity. 
A sumptuous entertainment was given, on temperance principles, 
and it was only on the near approach of early dawn that the com- 
pany finally and reluctantly separated. 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Adams Family, 289. 

Asa, 76, 79. 

Dea. Benj'n, 56, 57, 58, 60, 
61, 71, 95, 90, 109, 145, 
155, 172, 257, 266, 272. 
290. 

Maj. Benj'n, 161. 198, 214. 

127, 244, 245, 272, 273, 283, 
291, 292. 

Dea. Ephraim, 21, 48, 57, 
59, 60,63,72, 81,88, 90, 
93,108,155,165,172,256, 

266, 267. 289, 290, 354. 
Ephraim, Jr., 159, 175, 251, 

267, 274, 277. 
Ebenezer, 213, 262, 290, 291, 

292. 
Frederick A., 211, 214, 263. 
Henry, 274, 291, 293. 
Isaac, 132, 161, 178, 211, 

269,270,274,291,293. 
Jonas, 102, 103, 293. 
John, 102, 103,290. 
Levi, 71, 76, 102. 
Moody, 161, 235, 274, 285, 

a35. 
Phineas, 71, 76, 102, 293. 
Quincy, 272, 290, 354. 
Stephen, Jr., 71, 76, 102, 

146, 155, 281. 
Stephen, 60, 70, 172, 177, 

278, 285. 293. 
Thomas, 290, 291, 293. 
Zachariah, 101, 146, 172, 

231, 276, 293. 
Ainsworth, William, 132, 211, 

230, 282. 
Fred. S., 214, 329. 
Allen, Stephen T., 208, 210. 
Ames, Oilman, 2.39, 282. 

Jlartin, 241, 282, 283, 284. 
Appleton Family, 294. 
Appleton, Aaron, 303. 

Francis, 303, 198, 273, 380. 
Isaac, 26, 30, 42, 52, 53, 54, 

55, 69, 63, 64, 161, 172, 

197, 198, 223, 239, 244, 

266, 267, 273, 276, 284, 

297, 302, .303, 304, 305, 

307, 310, 319, 377. 
Jesse, 204, 213, 304, 305, 

322, 320, 328. 
John, 260, 273, 472. 
John Jr , 214. 
Joseph, 213, 283,303,305, 

353. ' 
Moses, ,303, 304, 305, 
Nathan, 214, 294, 304, 306, 

311. 
Samuel, 207, 209, 226, 228, 

233, 248, 305, 308, 309, 

310, .311, 312, 313, 314, 

315, 343. 

liACUEi.DER Family, 335 
Uacholdpr, Eliza, 3'.t3, 443. 
Ilai-vev, 231, 2S3, 3.S4 
John M.,283, 3.38, 229. 
.loseph, 239, 277, 283, 308. 
Josiah, 140, 161, 219,239, 

248, 275, 284. 285. 
Kuthy, 219, 419. 
Siiniuel, 122, 128, 129, 1.30, 

155, 255, 277, -335. 
Canine!, Jr.. 138, 140,160, 
211, 248,' 269, 283, 285, 
33o, 337. 
Bacon, Retire, 71, 259, 279. 

Margaret, 2-59. 
Ijailey, Levi, 190, 219, 245, 275. 



Baker, Joseph, 71, 240, 273. 
Bancroft, James, 276, 279. 
Barbour, Isaac R.,164, 181, 211, 

220, 276. 
Barr, James, 155, 222, 249, 274, 
280, 356. 
Dr. James, 16, 65, 128, 140, 
215, 232, 284, 386. 
Barrett Family, 330. 

Capt. Charles, 69, 70, 73, 
105, 115, 116, 118, 197, 
198, [199, 200, 210, 222, 
223, 224, 226, 231, 234, 
2.35, 244, 267, 268, 280, 
285, 309, 330, 331, 354, 
406, 413, 414, 415. 
Charles, Jr., 161, 162, 163, 
211, 213, 228, 233, 255, 
299, 270, 282, 311, 333. 
George, 211, 235, 234, 236, 

255, 284, 285, 3-33, 334. 
Joseph, Esq., 43, 62, 161, 
279, 270, 272, 283, 305, 
322, 376, 388, 389. 
Joseph A., 214, 220, 232. 
Bartlett, John, 214, 334. 
George, 334. 
Noah, 172, 245, 242, 268, 

277, 309, 334, 389, 122, 
124. 

Samuel, 70, 257, 303, 334, 
378. 

Barton, Aaron, 125. 

Bateman, Charles, 248, 282, 284. 

Bates, Lt. Joseph, 43, 59, 60, 
62, 64, 65, 71, 72, 81, 83, 
85, 88, 143, l44, 150, 172, 
196, 2.32, 267, 272, 338, 
366, 388. 
Rev. Keuben, 189, 428. 

Bennett, Abraham, 146, 281. 

Bigelow. Silas, 235, 280, 438. 

Billings, Benj. A., 2.39, 284. 

Binney, John, 161, 281, 378, 
437. 

Bliss, J. W., 162, 2.36, 281, 282. 

Blodgett, Aaron, 274. 

Boston, a Slave, 155, 256. 

Boyce, Rev. Mr., 189. 

Boynton, Earl, 161, 273. 
Oliver, 249,273,283. 

Breed, Aaron, 278. 
"ohn, 79, 73, yi 

278, 338, 339. 
Dr Nathaniel, 215. 

Briant, Edmond, 71, 172,196, 
239, 273, 270, 339, 377. 

Joseph, 239. 
Brickett, Moses, 242, 282, 283. 

Oilman, 2.35, 283. 

James, 283. 
Bride, James, 272. 
Brooks, Daniel, 225, 274, 275, 
782. 

David, 70, 276. 

Joseph, 71, 435. 

Newton, 285. 

Leonard, 237, 2.S5. 

Solomon, 275, 282. 

Stephen, 279, 434. 

AValton, 279. 

William, 274. 
Brown Family, 3.59. 
Brown, Abner, 244, 274, .340. 

Addi.«on, 214. .341. 

Dr. Oalviu, 216. 

Eleazer, 161, 281, 341, 245, 
248. ' ' 

EbL.i.t::(.r, 228, 2.39, 250, 272, 
341. 



Brown, Josiah, 71, 72, 76, 86, 
88, 94, 109, 150, 155, 172 
186, 187,t267, 274, 339, 
340. 
John, 30, SI, 50, 54, 60, 61, 
71,150,187,267,272,273, 
279,341. 
John. Jr., 71, 102. 
Joseph, 198, 200, 210, 211, 
277, .341. 
Buckman, Joseph, 241,383,435, 
Benoni, 277. 
Aaron, 277. 
BuUard, Asa, 61, 211, .342, 

Ebenezer, 30, 31, 50,53, 54, 

60,61,342. 
Eleazer, 102. 
Ephraim, 342. 
Isaac, 342. 

Joseph, 30, 31, 50, 53, 54, 
60,61. 
Bumham, Stephen, 213, 283. 
Burrows, William, 277, 278, 298. 
Butman, John, 159, 239, 280. 

Caesar, colored, 155,256, 272. 
Campbell, Caleb, 43, 161, 276, 
351, a55, 377. 
Robert, 60, 70, 146, 280, 351. 
Carleton, Abraham, 278. 

Jesse, 60, 71, 76, 146, 278. 
Moses, 272. 

Nathaniel, 60, 70, 76, 677. 
Chamberlain, Aaron, 70, 270. 
Ephraim, 70. 
Loammi, 226. 
Champney Family, 343. 
Champney, Benjamin, 123, 1.35, 
161, 175, 192, 193, 197, 
211, 214, 215, 224, 228, 
258, 262, 275, 332, 344, 
346,347,391,419,458. 
Jonas C, 344, 360. 
George M., 233, 247, 252, 

283, 342, 345. 
John, 2.34, 275, 343, 344, 
345. ' ' ' ' 
Chandler Family, 348. 
Chandler, James, 86, 109, 146, 
155, 161, 172, 175, 267, 
270, 276, 277, 280, 348, 
387,429. ' 

John, 30,31,50,54,55,60, 
69, 172,} 215, 231, 236, 
256, 274, 348, 349. 
Roger, 161, 227, 233, 245, 
277, 280, 348, 446. 
Chickering Family, 349. 
Chickering, Abner, 161, 176, 
229, 245, 272, 349, 415. 
Jonas, 349, 451. 
Clark, Benj. A., 272, 289. 
Bunker, 70, 274. 
Isaac, 71, 150, 172, 273. 
John, 193, 211, 204, 273, 

282,284,353,355. 
John P., 281, 282, 353, 234, 
246. 
Clary, Daniel. 60. 71, 249, 277, 
279, 351, 352. 
Rev. Joseph W., 371, 385. 
William, 71, 98, 150, 277, 
351, 3S6. 
Olough, Dr. John, 216, 345. 
Cloves, I'eter, 239, 285. 
Oochiau, Dr. T.n., 216, 2S5, 
330, 428. 
Levi, 240, 285. 
Coffin, Robert A., 208, 210. 
Collins, Jo&cpb, 2lb0. 



II 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Collins, Nathan, 280. 
Conant, Abel, 215. 
Andrew, 272, 274. 
Z., 278. 
Conn, Andrew, 60, 146, 278. 
Cooke, Noah, 283, .352, 3.5.3. 
Josiah P., 213, 352, 353. 
--^orey, Hezekiah, 60, 70, 146, 
244. 
Craggin, Benjamin, 96, 354, 
Cragin Familt, 353. 
Cragin, Francis, 160, 272, 33.3, 
.354. 
Isaiah, 239, 284, 355. 
Joseph, 161, 272, 278, 286, 

354, 355, 390. 
Leonard, 275,282,3.55. 
Samuel, 351, 3.55. 
Silas, 240, 275, 285, 354, 
425. 
Cram, Benjamin, 279. 

Lnke, 233. 
Crosby Family, 355. 
Crosby, Hannah. 172. 
Joel, 60. 146, 172, 355. 
John, 140. 
Jonah. 172, 355. 
Josiah; 60, 210, 277, 3.55. 
Robert, 61, 64, 145, 266, 277 
355. 
CtJMMiNGS Family, 257. 
Cummings. Charles, 274, 356, 
425. 
Capt. Eleazer, 55, 73, 80, 
146, 1.55, 196, 198, 202, 
221, 276, 278, 281, 355, 
425. 
Samuel, 102, 231, 247, 375, 

376. 
Eev. Seneca, 219, 433. 
CnTTER Family, 357. 
Cutter, John 71. 80, 90, 150, 
155, 172, 215, 272, 273, 
277,356,442, 
Nathan, 60, 71. 155, 273, 
277, 356. 
Davis Family, 357. 
Davis, Benjamin, 71, 161, 274, 
277,335,857. 
Miss Clarissa, 21, 91. 
James, 273, 357, 374. 
Jonathan, 70, 102, 172,233, 

244, 274. 3.57. 
Joseph, 43, 171, 217, 234, 
240, 259, 273, 3-55, 374, 
377. 
Joel, 226. 

Josiah, 70, 226, 280, 357. 
Dr. Kendall, 215. 
Moses, 161, 275. 
Silas, 71, 150, 280, 283, 357, 

446. 
Solomon, 120, 2.3:1 274,-357. 
Stephen, 71, 172, 341, 357. 
Thomas, 70, 102, 275, 276, 
357, 875. 
Dennis, Arthur, 2,31, 273. 
IJoduey G., 214. 
Thomas, 2ij, 30, 31, 51, 54. 
Dix, Jonathan, 140, 155, 
232, 2.34, 284,. 361. 
Durcn, N. G., 246, 419, 428. 
Dutton, John, 60,71,143,172, 
249,275. 
Jonas, 90. 
Samuel, 159, 239, 285, 400. 

T!a.stman, Lnkc,210. 
Eaton, Joseph Jr., 186,277. 
o; P., 211, 2.33, 283. 



Edes, Amasa, 208, 210. 
Edwards, Ebenezer, 211. 

E. P., 1.39, 282, 288, 284. 
Emerson Family, 445. 
Emerson, Brown, 21S, 445. 

Daniel, 30, 165, 166, 167, 
168, 198, 200, 210, 279. 

John, 279, 445. 

Reuben, 213, 262, 203, 445. 

Thomas, 278, 445. 

William, 262, 277, 445. 
Epps, Lewis, 2-39, 246, 276, 378. 
Estabrook, ( Esterbrook) — 2-35, 
305, 415. 

Samuel, 280, 387. 

Solomon, 166, 280. 
Eveleth, Edward, 42. 
Everett, David, 283, .321. 

Dolly, 208, 2.39, 285. 

John, 96, 160, 2.30, 245, 246, 
264, 275. 

Fairbanks, Ephraim, 161, 239, 
277, 348. 
Samuel B., 219 
Farley, George F., 215, 270, 276, 

284. 
Farnsworth, Daniel, 71, 88. 
Marshall, 172. 
Thomas, 60, 64, 71, 244. 
Farr, Levi. 277. 

Nathaniel, 70, 277, 278. 
Faeear Family, 358. 
Farrar, Caleb, 240, 245, -3.39, 419. 
Ephraim U., 1.32, 211, 269, 
270, 283, 319, 320, 339, 
860, 419,' 463. 
Isaac B., 123, 234. 284, 339. 
James, 60, 61, 62, 66, 275, 

284, 339. 
Mark, 247, 272, 432, 434. 
Madam, 283. 
Samuel, 71, 213, 339, 358, 

3f!3. 
Stephen, 61, 72, 81, 85, 109, 
110, 121, 1.3;^, 169, 170, 
172, 173, 174, 177, 184, 
198, 199, 200, 202, 210, 
219, 231, 235, 236, 256, 
272, 273, 274, .287, 809, 

Timothy, 62, 71, 74, 103, 
105, 107, 108, 116, 155, 



117, 121, 139, 142, 275, 
355, 368, 369, 423, 468. 
Farwell, Daniel, 275, 177. 
Isaac, 70, 277. 
Dr. Moors, 216, 275, 285. 
Ru.ssell, 239, 276, 277, 435. 
Felt, Peter, 122, 142, 160, 161, 
211, 226, 255, 269, 270, 
276, 375. 
Fitch, John , 46 . 
risk, Josiah, 273. 
Fletcuer Family, .374. 
Fletcher, Cumminss, 159, 239, 
211, 270. 
Ebenezer, 95, 192, 186, 187, 
219, 231, 2.33, 236, 239, 
2S6, 285, .374, 375. 
Ephraim, 394,376. 
Francis. 60, 64, 71, 105, 106, 

151, 196, 244, 277, 374. 
Henry, 71, 279. 
John, 276, 277. 
Josiah, 222, 234, 240, 273, 
374. 



Fleteher, Peter, GO, 71, 81, 96, 
193, 272, 374. 
Roby, 231. 241, 282, 283. 
Sampson, 2.32, 232, 283, 389. 
Simeon, 60, 69, 146, 172, 

244, 249, 275, 274. 
Thomas, 43,60. 71,149,150, 
1.55, 172, 198, 202, 210, 
215, 244, 273, 374, 877, 
420. 
Foote, Asahel,210. 
Foster, Abijah, 43,54,61,2.51, 

272, 283, 276, 338, 374, 
375, 276,30,31,50. 

Daniel, 79, 95, 96, 239, 275, 

276, 277, 285. 
Ebenezer, 43, 199, .377. 
Ephraim, 70, 100, 102, 103, 
276. 
Foster, Marv, 43, 60, 70, 146, 
285, 3t7. 
Samuel, 61, 102, 103, 276. 
Silas, 234, 281. 
Fox Family, 377. 
Fox, Ephraim, 277, 398. 
George, 277, 398. 
Timothy, 70, 150,1.55, 160, 
234, 245, 268, 269, 277^ 
284, 353, 877, 386, 428. 
French, David, 241, 283, 284. 
Joseph, 29, 30, 54. 

Gallup, Dr. Wm., 216, 285. 
Gibbs, Benjamin, 60, 70, 86, 109, 

146, 867, 278, 393. 
Gibson, C. S.,-**. ^ST 

Col. George, 226,232,246, 

273, 275, 304. 

Dr. Henry, 216, 230, 252, 

253, 275. 
Dr. Stillmjin, 216, 217, 2.36, 
275, 280, 340, 374, 426. 
Giles, Daniel, 277. 
Godding, Ariel, 279. 

IIenr5', 187- 
Going, John, 275, 378. 

Noah, 275, 378. 
Goodale, Phineas, ,59. 
Goold, Adam, 71, 274, 379. 
GocLD Family, 279. 
Gould, John, 101, 161, 2.39, 249, 
258, 270, 273, 285, 349, 
380, 406. 
Ambrose, 380 
Augustus A. 214, 383, 453. 
Charles D., 383. 
Nathaniel, 71, 379. 381, -382. 
N. D., 133, 13-5, 100, 175, 
176, 178, 192, 211, 220. 
234, 263, 2f>4. 265, 269, 
278, 284. ,353, 381. 
Simeon, 60, 64, 71, 98, 105, 
150, 155, 196, 355, 379, 
380, 432. 
Grace, (a Slave,) 256. 
Greele, Samuel, 2(>4, 245, 249. 
Guernsey, Rev. Jo.seph IV'., 189. 

Hall, Richard, 126, 1.35, 138, 
160, 164, 175, 176, 177, 
179, 184, 211, 214, 219, 
284, 383. 
Horace, 214, 871, 384. 
William, 125, 250, 334, 889. 
Hallet, Allen, 285. 
Hammond, E. L., 235. 282, 423. 
Harding, Rev. Mr.. 189. 
Uarkiiess, John, 71, 76, 270. 

Robert, 71. 
Hartshorn, Jonathan, 272, 4,32. 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Ill 



Hartwell, Ephraim, 118, 124, Hughes, Charles, 225. 
■ IfiO, 175, 198, 200, 202, 

210, 221, 244, 255, 284, Iambic, Isaac, 126, 138, 220. 
359, .386. Ida, Simeon, 237, 279. 

nassall, William, 241, 282. Ireland, Jane 0., 219. 

Hastings, Chirles, 128, 283. _ Kev^Mr., 219, 443. 

Haven, Martin, 239, 285. 
Heald Family, 386. 
Ueald, Ebenezer, 60, 64, 274. 
Josiah, 280, 389. 
Thomas, 60, 64, 70, 74, 90, 
93, 101, 105, 116, 155, 
190 "^ "'" ""' "" 
246 

415 *- 
Timothy ,30, 31, 50, 54, 59, William,' 239,' 285.' 

CO, 61, 64, 69, 143, 167, Johnson, Ichabod, 263 



Mansfield Pamiit, 416. 
Mansfield, William, 274, 281. 
McClarv, Daniel, 60. • 
Melvin, David, 70, 76, 102, 189. 
John, 70, 71, 89. 187. 
Nathaniel, 70, 390. 
Isaacs, Edward M., 123, 2,33, Meriam, Nathan, 150, 155, 161, 
282, 283, 446 198, 202, 279. 

Henry, 140, 285, 283, 284, Miller, Lieut. J. F., 378. 
446. Miles, Abel, 179, 278. 

„.., „_o Milliken, Joseph, 204,210,212. 

Jafiuith,_James, 2(4, 2(8. Morrison, Thomas, 76,79. 



251, 252, 266, 280, 386. 
387. 
Hedge, Mr., 197, 308. 
Herrick, Charles, 120, 274. 
Hewes, Kobert, 222, 223. 
Hewett, ^^■illiam, 102, 274. 
Heywood, Samuel, 71, 110, 234, 

276, 283, 288. 
Hildreth, Simeon, 60, 70, 96, 
103, 146, 277, 447. 
James, 277, 447. 
Stephen, 70, 102, 277, 447. 
HiiLS Family, 388. 
Hills, David, 43, 71, 83, 84, 85, 
149, 155, 202, 222, 232, 
272, 283, 383, 389. 
Jabez, 380. 
John F., 139, 161, 232, 272, 

283, 378, 389. 
Mary, 389. 
Sarah, 489. 
Hoar Family, 391. 
Hoar, Benjamin, 30, 31, 34, 44, 
50. 51, 53, 54. 56, 57, 70, 
143, 1.56, 147, 167, 172, 
234, 239, 243, 250, 256, 
257, 266, 275, 391, 392, 
421, 444. 
Jotham, 96, 155, 275, 397. 
Hodge, Levi, 240, 285. 
Hodgkins, Tabitha, 377. 

William, 70, 140. 276. 
HoLDEN Family, 390. 
Ira S., 247, 390. 
Reuben. 278, 390. 425. 
Samuel, 70, 146, 239, 248, 
278 390. 
Holland, John, 63, 66, 304. 
Holt, Aitemas, 273. 
S. B., 2.35, 283. 
Holton, Jesse, 161, 225. 274, 275, 

284. 
Horsley, James, 106, 267, 275. 
Hosmer, A., 2S0. 

Ca.stalio, 270, 27i!, 273. 
Nathan, 280 
Reuben, 146, 390. 
Houghton, Stedmau, 240, 248, 

285, 355. 
House, A. H., 187. 
How Family, 392. 
How, Ichabod, 61, 63, 64, 69, 
144, 146, 167, 172, 266, 
273, 392. 
Isaac, 60, 63, 71, 72, 



Wm. W., 211, 234, 281, 282, 
353, 427. 
JoNE3 Family, 393. 
Jones, Ebenezer, 276. 

Elisha, 217, 276. 

Dr. Frederick, 216, 275. 

John Taylor, 214, 217. 

Richard H., 239, 393. 

Stephen F., 214. 

Kelly, Joseph, 66, 364. 
Kesson, Charles, 282. 
Kidder Family, 304. 
Kidder, Aaron, 60. 64, 69, 144, 
243, 266, 405, 407. 
Edward, 398, 399, 507. 
Isaiah, 122, 140, 175, 211, 
222, 226, 233, 244, 269, 
273, 283, 406, 497, 411. 
Reuben, 11, 30, 31, .34, .37, 
38,63, 64,65,71.129,145, 
155, 164, 167, 172, 213, 



Joseph, 235, 280. 
Onesimus, 278, 417. 
Seth, 278, 280. 
Nutting, Hiram, 241, 276, 

Obear, Clark H., 258, 285. e. „ 
Josiah, 239, 285. v 1- ' ^ 

Palmer, David, 201, 204, 211, 

212, 263. 
Ebenezer, 234, 419. 
Elijah, 214, 418. 
John, 418, 439. 
Jonathan, 70, 96, 102. 
Joseph, 70, 86, 93, 100,105, 

107, 109. 244, 267, 273, 

277, 417. 
Luther, 161, 418. 
Samuel, 50, 64, 71, 240, 

278, 283, 418, 419. 
Stephen, 71, 95, 96, 155, 

244, 273, 418, 442. 
Zachariah, 222, 245, 277, 
418. 



223, 243, 236, 254, 255, Parkhurst, John, 186, 284. 
2,56, 266, 273, 405,406, Payson, Rev. Seth, 174, 177, 198, 



407, 409 
Rachel, 71, 150, 172, 404. 
Susanna, 396, 399, 406. 
Thomas, 71, 102, 196, 398, 

399, 403, 404, 405, 407. 
Wilder, 76, 406. 
Kimball, Ezra, 240, 275. 

Jonathan, 109, 114, 239, 

283. 
Kinney, Kinny, Samuel, 60, 64, 

70, 146, 275, 415. 
Jonathan, 189, 275. 
King, Benj.amin, 15, 76, 257, 

272, 4.30. 
George F., 214. 
Seth, 62, 142, 135, 140, 100, 



200, 203, 219, 219, 237, 
360, 361. 
Perham, Samuel, 59, 61, 273, 

419. 
Parker, Abigail, 344, 349, 419. 

Asa, 102, 103, 419. 
Pierce, Warren, 204. 210. 
Pollard, Benjamin, 71,140, 150, 
284, 429. 
James, 428. 
Joseph, 70, 146, 172, 278, 

280, 418. 
Ruth, 172, 378, 428. 
Porter, Experience, lt34, 175. 
Powers, Peter, 30, 31, 54, 165, 
166, 167, 430. 



176, 240, 246, 279, 284, pratt, John, 70, 109, 161, 193, 



423 

Kittredge, Dr., 285. 
Knights, Enos, 109, 239, 274, 
415, 434. 
Elijah, 239, 274, 415. 
Knowlton, Benjamin, 60, 64, 71, 
73, 155, 244, 272, 415. 
John, 272, 278, 355, 390. 
425. 



Lawrence, 240, 277. 

Edward A., 210. 
Joseph. 283. 
Lee, Samuel, 417. 
William, 280. 
101, 102, 109, 114, 115, Lock, Jonathan, 198. 
190, 248, 267, 274, 392, AVilliam. 233,273.274,275, 

393. 277, 250, 285, 444, 446. 

Hubbard, Ch,arles, 210,284,285, james, 101, 280, 284, 285, 

John, 197, 198, 200, 202, ^r, > i ' ' 

20.3, 210, 211, 212, 216, Lowell, Feter, 76, 77. 

262, 208, 283, 309. 422. ' ' > ■•,„,„, 

Jonathan, 30, 31, 52, 54, Manning, Salathiel, 226, 2.32, Pritchard, Alanson, 249, 427, 
266 275. Amos, 71,239,262,272,283 



248, 249, 268, 277, 419, 
420. 

Nathaniel, 70, 249, 420. 

Phineas, 214, 239, 277, 335, 
420. 
Prentice, Henry, 420, 421. 

Nathaniel, 221, 224, 275, 
282, 420, 421. 

ATilliam H., 44, 420, 421. 
Preston, Isaac, 231, 249, 272, 
281. 

James, 60, 280, 281, 421. 

John, 71, 63, 84, 70, 105, 
109, 114, 116, 118, 133, 
150, 155, 135, 139, 140, 
142, 160, 162, 172, 197, 
198, 202, 249, 252, 255, 
256, 267, 268, 269, 270, 
276, 282, 283, 284, 344, 
345, 362, 406, 421, 434. 

Samuel, 70, 220, 422. 



IV 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



890, 425. 
Pricliard, Asa, 245, 274- 

Benjamin, 222, 238, 275, 

276,428. 
Oilman, 228, 426. 
Jeremiah, 76, 90, 102,103, 

160, 192, I9S, 202, 211, 

226, 240, 245, 268, 273, 

284, 375, 425. 426, 428. 
Paul, 71, 81, 106, 109, 114, 

256, 267, 272, 424. 
Perley, 214, 425. 
Stephen, 272, 284, 425, 428, 

432. 
William, 55, 102, 106, 161, 

245, 249, 272, 274, 275, 

356, 425, 427. 
Proctor, Oliver, 15, 56, 62, 143, 

273,283,428. 
Pudney, Henry. .30, 31, 50. 54. 
Putnam, John, 238, 275, 276. 

Ramsdell, Amos, 235, 280. 

George, 278, 280. 

Reuben, 245, 246. 

Col. , 392, 436, 439. 

James, 76, 77, 234, 281. 
Rhoades, Eleazer, 226, 275. 

Silas, 71, 172, 274, 419. 
Richardson, Charles, 224, 347. 
llobbins, Josiah, 71, 155. 
Koby, Ralph, 239, 284. 285, 375. 
Uumrill, David, 70, 96, 146, 278, 

279. 
Rus.sell, Lysander, E., 239, 280. 

Reuben, 274, 444. 
Ryan, Rogers, 276, 281. 

Sanderson, James, 229,281. 

Col. Isaac, 132, 161, 285. 
Safford, Benjamin, 17, 140, 142, 
60, 63, 70, 96, 139, 146, 
172, 259, 295, 275, 348, 429. 
Reuben, 310, 429. 
Sanders, George, 241, 281, 282, 

443. 
Scripture, Oliver, 215, 272, 372, 

443. 
i^carle, Ephraim, 1.39, 288. 
Severance, Abba, 60, 272. 
Shattuck, Abel, 161, 239, 275, 
285,430. 
Francis, 102, 240, 273, 280, 

283. 
John, 246, 275, 285, 4-30. 
Sliebuel, 272, 274, 275, 4.30. 
William,70, 73, 85,90, 194, 
276, 429. 
Shed, Heury, 214. 
Sherwin, David, 198, 285, 425. 
Smith, Abijah, 71, 90, 172, 196, 
2,39, 244, 248, 272, 273, 
278, 285, 389, 430. 
Charles, 247, 4.30. 
Earl, 206, 207, 210. 
Elijah, 239, 272, 430. 
iriram, 228. 282. 
Jeremiah, 96, 233, 246, 270, 

276, 4.30. 
Jesse, 96, 206, 210, 430. 
Judge, 97, 9S, 368. 
Nathaniel, 31, .51, .54. 
I'olly, 430, 
Samuel, 1,59, 430. 
Spiinlding, Andrew, ,30, 31, ,54, 
60, 71, 146, 155, 172, 276. 
•356, 430. 
Isaac, 240, 274, 283, 432. 



Spaulding, James, 44, 125. 
Sewall, 125, 4,32. 
Thomas, 60, 70, 146, 2.34, 
249, 273, 275, 276, 232, 
431, 444. 
Stephen, 161, 276, 431. 
Spear, Joseph, 274, 432. 

AVilliam, 61, 69, 71, 149, 155, 
196, 274, 4,32. 
Spoor, Ephraim, 125, 274, 415. 
Stark, Gen. John, 71, 89, 96, 

215, .352. 
Start, Ebeuezer, 246, 4.32. 

George, 60, 71, 172, 202, 432, 

437. 
.Tohn, 76, 4.32. 
Moses, 380, 432. 
William, 71, 272, 428, 4-32. 
Stearns, Charles, 239, 281, 285, 
4;i3. 
Isaac, C, 332. 
Isaac, 278, 280, 417, 433. 
Jesse, 219, 351, 433. 
Sternes, Timothy, 75, 214, 274, 

279. 
Stevens, Ephraim, 76, 96, 434. 
John, 30, 31, 52, 53, .54, 434. 
John, T., 232, 284, 285, 388. 
Joseph, 30, 31, 44, 50, 54, 
56,164,16.5,167,272,434. 
Jonathan, 71, 432, 434. 
Stickney, Joseph, 273. 

Moody, 293. 
Stone, Nathaniel, 93, 98, 147, 

266. 
Stratton. Daniel, 71, 271, 4.34. 
Nehemiah, 96, 102, 425. 
Seth, 239, 241, 282, 285, 
Sullivan, Gen. 80, 100, 375, 417, 

Taft, James, 140, 231, 240, 284. 
Talcott, Hart, 206, 210. 
Taylor, Amos, 61, 173, 277, 4,35. 
Oliver, S., 175, 210, 214, 435. 
Reuben, 61, 70, 146, 430, 

4.34, 435. 
Sauiuel, 161, 276, 279, 434, 

435. 
Thaddeus, 435. 
Zebodee,161, 4,31, 434,435. 
Tenney, .loseph, 70, 259, 277 , 
278, 280. 
Sampson, 281. 
Thayer, Stephen, 211, 270, 285. 

& ^Vood, 240, 
Thomas, Odoardo, 70, 149, 277, 
4o5. 



Tidder, James, 70, 102, 277. 
Towne, Ezra, 72, 75, (6, 77, 86, 
442, 200, il, 79, 150, 172, 

244, 246 .249, 272, 340, 
432, 435, 437. 

Edmund, 71,272. 

Elijah, 122, 140, 234, 239, 

245. 283, 287. 

Tucker, Moses, 44, 46, 48, 00, 
63, 69, 70, 172, 16(i, 243, 
244,246,274,275,432,437, 
441. 

Walker. Charles, 125, 164. 182, 

211, 284. 
ItMuforth. 27.5, 277. 
Dauicl, 179, 28J.4:i8. 
. I esse, KG. 271, 279. 43S, 

445. 
John, 146. 276, 279. 28], 4v37, 

438. 



Walker, Samuel. 71, 96, 102. 

Zach's, 275.280. 438, 
Walton, Josi.ah, 18.71. 76, 78, 86, 
96, 102, 103, 146, 150, 155, 
174, 282. 
Warner. Joliu, 71, 192, 198, 221, 

262. 267, 420. 
Warren, Joseph, 70, 280. 

Peter, 222, 231, 259, 273. 
Waugh, Robert, 60. 
Webster, Daniel, 368, 369, 370. 
Wentworth, Gov. 11, 409, 411. 
Wetherbee, Abijah, 238, 245, 

278, 276. 
Wheeler, Jonas, 70, 280, 259, 
274, 280, 439. 
Richard, 96, 277, 281, 286, 

440, 443. 
Samuel C, 248, 252, 274 

392, 493. 
Samuel, 96, 196. 279, 349. 
Seth, 70, 195, 127, 159, 160, 
191, 241, 267, 268, 278, 
280,440. 

.Silas, 125, 274, 279,280, 
281, 282. 3.35, 440. 
^. Stephen, 132, 161, 236, 269, 
'^ 270, 280, 440. 
Whcelock, Ithamer, 102,441. 
Joel, 273. 274,279,441. 
Timothy, 71, 275, 356, 437, 
441. 
White, Archibald, ,30, 31, 50, 54, 
00, 176, 96, 212, 274, 440, 
Whittemore, Amos, 189, 252, 
276, 442. 
Peletiah, 60. 70, 76, 96, 102, 

146, 155, 275, 375, 442. 
Samuel, 60, 70, 81, 146, 235, 
244, 266, 280, 441, 442, 
443. 
Wilder, Joseph P., 238, 245, 279. 
WilUins, John, 70, 275,276, 425, 
431. 
David, 275, 278. 
John, 275.276, 425, 531. 
.Tosiah, 161, 275. 
Willard, Andrew, 283, 282. 
Willey, Newton, 161, 240, 245, 

285. 
Williams, Benjamin, 71, 76, 90. 
1,50. 
E. B. 279, 4,35, 532. 
Isaiah, 239, 284, 442. 
Wilson Family. 442. 
Wilson, Isaac, 272, 443. 
Jas. 60. 443. 
John, 161, 272, 356, 443. 
Supply, 70, 76, 78, 124, 136, 
160, 161, 176, 211, 244, 
246, 208, 272, 856, 434, 
442. 443. 
Woods, Gen. Henry, 70,198,200, 

210. 
Woolson, Jonas, 50, 56, 58, 60, 
105, 106, 172, 230, 266, 
274, 444, 446. 
Joseph, 30, 31, 54, 54, 64, 70, 
239. 
Worcester, AVooster, Rev. Fran- 
cis, 164, 165.. 
Rev. Samuel, 134, 205. 210. 212, 

219.307. 
Wiighl, Oliver. 70. 277, 2S1. 
Siiinuel.Oi. ()9. 
Simeon Tn Hi; •>!:. •.>S0 . 
445. 



